The Challenge to End All Challenges

[Slariton]

People have been observing for a long time that magic is extremely powerful in G4 (and G2 and G3) and that of all PC abilities, it's the one that is hardest to do without. So.

 

Finish the game without casting a single magic spell. Ever. Not one Minor Heal. Not one Firebolt.

 

Of course, you will want to do it on Torment.

 

And you have to actually fight stuff. This is not a stealth challenge.

 

Suddenly missiles become much more precious. You will have to save the best ones for when you really need them.

 

Creations will be helpful, but the fact that you have limited means to heal them means you can't rely on them in all parts of the game, and they will likely have to be disposable. They are however a free resource, since you don't need essence for spells.

 

The lack of infinite healing also means PC defense becomes somewhat more important. Endurance is critical. But most of all, it will force you to optimize your tactics completely.

 

This challenge is obviously one place the Warrior can shine.

 

You can clearly do this on no canisters, but I'd rather do it on low canisters, as some of the special creations can really shine here. Charged Vlish, for example, are practically the only reusable Slow effect you have (until Ur-Drakons at the very end of the game). Pyroroamers might be useful, too.

 

Bhahahahahahaha.

[Lilith]

I think this would be very doable with a warrior or shock trooper. You'd have to save pods and spores (except essence pods, obviously) for when you actually need them, but I'm pretty sure there's enough to get you through the game if you avoid the harder optional fights. I foresee lack of healing as being a major problem -- using pods to heal between fights is just extravagant, so you're going to be running back to town a lot.

[Slariton]

No, you'll definitely want to save essence pods. They net you extra disposable creations.

[Lilith]

P1: Creations require essence.

P2: Essence used for creations cannot be used for other purposes while the creation lives.

C1: Essence reserved to make charged creations cannot be used to improve your permanent creations.

P3: Charged Vlish use 75 essence.

P4: Essence Pods heal 65-70 essence.

C2: If you leave 75 essence free for making charged vlish, you're wasting a lot of essence pods.

C3: If you leave more than 75 essence free for making charged creations, that's even more essence that isn't going into your permanent creations.

 

Basically, I'm not sure I want to leave 75 essence unused just so I can occasionally slow an enemy. That's a lot of essence, especially early on.

[Slariton]

My thought was really that permanent creations would be extremely hard to keep alive, given that you can only heal them from spores. The lower tier ones will die easily, and even Drayks and their ilk can only take so many hits.

[Lilith]

Maybe so, but you're probably not going to be making creations during combat in any case -- and after the fight is over, there's ample time to run back to town with your tail between your legs and heal up rather than using pods.

 

Still, I suppose there's no harm in holding on to essence pods. Since I won't be buying spells, it's not as if money's going to be tight.

 

I'll get started on this as soon as I decide whether to use a Warrior or Shock Trooper. On one hand, the warrior has better overall starting stats. On the other, 1/3 more essence is very attractive.

[Randomizer]

Not having daze is going to hurt right from the start. A warrior or shock trooper would want to have lots of creations in order to have more attacks per round. Even if you have to replace them it would be worth it.

 

You will be buying up all available spores, pods, and crystals since you can't use healing and speed spells.

 

Too bad I don't have the time to try this challenge. I'm playing Nethergate and want to try the challenge of an all druid Roman party. Surprisingly the lower health and spell energy is balanced out by the multiple target attacks of 3 war druids using darts of ice at the start. Carrying loot back to town is a drag, but since they aren't buying javelins I'm up over 1000 gold after the abandoned mine at the start.

[Slariton]

The extra essence is nice. On the other hand, the Warrior gets extra HP, which should also be nice.

 

At any given point in the game, the Warrior should have (compared to the ST) approximately:

 

+3 melee skill

+3 missile skill

+4 Quick Action

+5 Parry

 

-1 Fire Shaping

-2 Battle Shaping

-1 Magic Shaping

 

-2 Intelligence

 

They seem pretty balanced to me. One thing that's worth pointing out is that your creations will _not_ be blessed or shielded (let alone hasted) on a regular basis. This is different from typical Lifecrafter play.

 

Chapter 2 sounds very painful to me for the ST, since you still don't have any creations that can take two hits without dying.

 

EDIT: Do you think it would be doable with the additional constraint that you can't leave zones just to heal?

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

Ah, this should be fun. I've already started a character following the exact same principles.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Facepalming Hecatonchire:
They seem pretty balanced to me. One thing that's worth pointing out is that your creations will _not_ be blessed or shielded (let alone hasted) on a regular basis. This is different from typical Lifecrafter play.

The difference in shaping skill won't really make much difference in the later parts of the game, and there's also Leadership and Mechanics to consider -- the Warrior has one more point of each.

On balance, though, I think the best build for this would play basically like a Lifecrafter with less access to buffs, so I'm going for a shock trooper.

Quote:

Chapter 2 sounds very painful to me for the ST, since you still don't have any creations that can take two hits without dying.

Hee hee. Since I played my first game as a low-canister rebel lifecrafter, I spent most of the first four chapters not having any creations that could take two hits without dying. Without defensive buffs, a Drayk often can't take one hit from a Wingbolt without dying. Lack of access to hasting and blessing is going to make it difficult to kill everything before it kills me, though. I guess I'll just have to try it and see how it goes.

Quote:

EDIT: Do you think it would be doable with the additional constraint that you can't leave zones just to heal?

Probably, but I'm guessing a lot of the game would have to be left incomplete, including most of the optional areas -- even playing normally it took me several runs in and out to do everything worth doing in the Western Morass. (A lot of the optional areas will have to be left incomplete anyway -- I don't see anyone being able to spare the number of pods and spores it'd take to wear down Matala.)

[Slariton]

I think the ST will be a little better. What tipped the scales for me was realizing how vulnerable even a well-armored Warrior will be to enemy magic attacks. Without Protection, Steel Skin, and so on, you'll be taking probably half damage even after Parry and armor. When facing multiple Wingbolts, that means even at very high levels you pretty much need creations to survive. The creations will die, so you go with the disposable creations model, which is fine.

 

Given the disposability model, actually, I expect I *would* pick a creation skill to pump somewhat. Not sure whether to go with Fire or Magic. They each have their good points. Magic is better early on with Artila and Vlish, but Fire gets Kyshakks who sound are the best value meatshields on the market.

[Randomizer]

From playing lifecrafters and a shocktrooper, I'd say that a shock trooper will work better since you don't need magic skills. You can get leadership 5 and mechanics of 6 in Southforge.

 

Start with fire shaping and intelligence as your main areas. A swarm of fyoras will do as well as a few cryoas. You will have enough for 3 fyoras and fire shaping of 7. They can be replaced with later creations in chapters 2 and 3 when you get kyshakks.

 

Since you don't need to increase spells and healing craft you have plenty of points for battle skills in the last half of chapter 2 that you can use after reaching Burwood and the trainer. Instant high parry and anything else you need.

 

The hard part will be saving all those spores and pods for when you need them.

[Lilith]

Clarification: when you say "this is not a stealth challenge", that doesn't preclude normal uses of leadership and mechanics to minimise fights or make them easier, right? I'm going to be leaning pro-Shaper for most of the game, so I at least want to avoid having to kill Moseh.

 

My shocktrooper just got out of Southforge with Greenfang and a cryoa in tow. Currently level 5: have invested all skill points so far in Leadership and Mechanics, and will still be doing so for the next level or two. More news as it comes.

[Slariton]

Yeah, normal use of Leadership and Mechanics is fine. The point of that clause is to prevent this from becoming effectively a much less restrictive version of the pacifist challenge.

[Lilith]

Making some headway into Chapter 1. Not too hard so far. Shock trooper is mostly hitting things with javelins, which are in plentiful supply; creations are hitting things in the usual way. Collecting food to use for healing to save trips back to town. Main thing I'm noticing: without access to blessing, I'm missing a lot more. The difference between hitting 60% of the time and 80% is significant when facing large groups of enemies. Going to have to think seriously about whether to invest in missile weapons later in the game or just not bother; my creations will be doing most of the damage anyway, and it'll take a lot of skill points before I'm able to hit worth a good goddamn. Cryoa is kind of overkill at this stage of the game; I'd probably be doing better with 3 fyoras instead, but I'm trying to keep it alive for later.

 

EDIT: So a drakon walks into Forsaken Docks and asks, "Is the Servile Tender here?"

 

Anyway, I've been lucky enough to snag a Thahdskin Tunic. Go team.

[Slariton]

I'd vote for Missile Weapons investment. There are several items which will be very useful at key moments with a little investment -- Reaper Batons, Wands of Death, Terror, Disruption and Corruption, Jeweled Wands, the wand that dazes, Torrent Gems and Madness Gems, even Ensnaring Fibers... there aren't lots of these but there are enough that you can use afford to use most of the Icy and Spray Crystals on merely moderately difficult spots.

 

The good creations are expensive enough that, by the time you've bought a decent amount of Int, it's going to take an investment of more than 30 skill points to pay for an extra Kyshakk. At that point the cheaper levels of missile weapons are a no-brainer. You don't have any real need to pump melee, Endurance and Parry aren't really attractive once they are expensive, and you only need so much shaping skill. Not sure what else would make sense.

[Aeshi]

You have to CAST WAR BLESSING to get through upper southforge!You have failed already!

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Tarrasque:
You have to CAST WAR BLESSING to get through upper southforge!You have failed already!

Anyway, the trouble with investing in Missile Weapons is that it's more than "a little investment". In my last game as a servile, I tried putting a point into Missile Weapons here and there when I could spare it, and ended up with about a 50% hit rate with crystals when blessed. Not really satisfactory.

Ah well. As you say, it's not like I have much else to do with all those skill points. May as well pump Dex, and Missile Weapons too once I've got those two points from Cap'n Archie. Maybe I should stick some Ivory Skulls on my armor too -- given that I don't intend for my shock trooper to act as a damage sink, they'll probably do more good than Steel Spines.

[Slariton]

Do Ivory Skulls increase hit rate? I forget what they do on armor, but if that's it, then yeah, definitely. I think you'll still want Golden Crystals in the end, since your best missile options hit everything anyway, though.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Facepalming Hecatonchire:
Do Ivory Skulls increase hit rate? I forget what they do on armor, but if that's it, then yeah, definitely.

Yeah, they add a cursing effect when put on weapons (meh) and increase hit rate when put on armour (yay). Quite handy.

Current status: just escorted Shaila to the docks. No less than four cryoas now following me around. Only really tricky battle so far was the soldiers in the eastern half of Spirefields -- had to burn a couple of Icy Crystals to avoid being killed. I haven't done the Dumping Pits yet, since it's going to be a pain without healing magic and the reward is useless to me, but I'll eventually have to go in there, if only for the Blood Poison.

Update: Just reached Dillame. Bought two levels of Create Vlish from Duncan, traded in two of my cryoas for vlish -- at least half of my creations should now be reasonably effective against any given opponent.

Update #2: Just cleared out Sandros Mine. The Parasitic Shade had been a major problem for both my lifecrafter and my servile. Since I had 10 bags of speed spores in reserve and hadn't really used any magic items up to this point, I decided to go in hasted. It might not even have been necessary -- with an army of four vlish and two cryoas, I absolutely cleaned its clock. The fight was over in two rounds, and mopping up the half-dozen shades it had summoned was no problem. Being able to spend all your essence on an overwhelming army of creations instead of leaving some in reserve for spells sure is an advantage at times.

[I_am_a_Minotaur]

The No-Spell Warrior

 

Chapter 1:

It was relatively easy, and I was even able to kill the drayk when I first got to it. I could kill most things in one hit, except for the higher level enemies like Battle Alphas. I used Greenfang through most of this Chapter, until Shaila took him. Overall, ths Chapter was simple.

 

Chapter 2: Part 1

The first half of this Chapter has been easy. I mowed down Sandros Mine easily, only the Parasitic Shade was a problem, and I beat it to. The Circle of the Drayk was easy as ever, with the Drayk and Serviles causing no problem. I have continued through as a Rebel. I equip myself with Intellect items whenever I upgrade my Vlish, and then re-equip my fighting gear. I have picked up Khur, and as I head towards Moseh, already have my Gloves of Savagery. I have over 200 health already, and have 16 QA 1nd 11 Stength and Parry. This run through has been much easier than my first runthrough, on Torment, with a Warrior.

[Lilith]

Continuing through Chapter 2. My first attempt on the drayk in the Circle of the Drayk went poorly, so after reloading I spent a charge from a terror wand, which made it run around in circles for long enough to kill it. Starting to wish I hadn't sold every wand I found on my first playthrough as a lifecrafter -- some of these things are actually useful.

[Randomizer]

I found by accident that if you aren't hasted in the Dumping Pit you don't get nailed by poison as much after you get past the artilas. Going for the box in the artila area for the discipline wand is the only place that you really need to be hasted.

 

Wands are really useful since you can't use spells. Discipline wands are a little deadlier than venom wands in the first half of the game. Sparkiling and terror wands are needed since you can't cast the spell. I always sold them myself.

 

The last part of Sandros Mine is going to be hard without spine shield for the old golem. Get ready to lose some creations since you have to do masssive healing.

[Lilith]

The wingbolts in Alwan's room in Rivergate Keep were interesting -- I was eventually able to beat them without losing creations or using up items by drawing them out one at a time, surrounding them with vlish and carefully managing my attacks so no vlish was attacked twice. My vlish were *just* tough enough to survive one melee attack plus the poison damage.

 

Krazo and Mystithus were pretty easy -- easier than either of them were in my normal Servile game. I'm no longer convinced this challenge is actually a challenge; it actually seems like the most effective way to play a shock trooper.

 

My skill points in this chapter have been invested about equally in Intelligence and Endurance, enough in Magic Shaping to get it up to 5 just before making my Vlish, and not much in anything else.

 

Looking ahead, Shaftoe may be tricky; after I've dealt with Moseh, I'm going to want to kill him to get his sword.

[Lilith]

On to Chapter 3. First thing I did was buy a bunch of shaping skills at Shaper Camp Gamma. With two wingbolts and a glaahk, Eliza was no problem and Shaftoe was only a little harder. I've sold the Agent's Cloak, of course, but the Guardian Claymore is going to see me through to the end of the game. I also went back to Sandros Mine -- the first two fights were pitifully easy, but the Old Golem is a problem.

 

Pretty soon the game is going to expect me to have Mass Energise. I suspect I'll be going through a lot of speed spores instead.

 

Update: Whew. Beat the Old Golem using an absolutely ridiculous strategy. I used two hasted Wingbolts to take him down as far as the Fearwarded form, then hid in a corner, waited for it to kill the Wingbolts (didn't take long), left combat mode, used some essence pods, made a pack of Glaahks to take him down to Crumbling form and waited for the damage it was taking every round to finish it off.

 

I then learned something rather interesting, in an infuriating kind of way -- if you wait long enough without killing it, the Crumbling Golem stops crumbling. Apparently the script just gives it a fairly long-duration Lightning Aura effect. So I had to make another pack of Glaahks to finish it off.

 

In hindsight, that fight would have been a lot easier if I'd had a Charged Vlish. I may as well officially declare this a canister-free challenge -- I'm not sure how I'll do without my precious Drakons and Gazers in the endgame, but, well, it's worth a shot.

 

Update #2: Well, the Forgotten One was easy by comparison. He couldn't really do much to hurt my Wingbolts, and I had a Glaahk running around to take care of the burrowers. Mmm, Shaper Trueweave.

[Randomizer]

This is probably one of the rare games where it's worth using supply tokens to get the guardian cloak. The infiltrator's cloak can always be swapped since you have to change so many other items. It will be until Quessa-Uss until there is another cloak worth using for armor protection unless you use the dead-eye cloak for just it's missle ability.

[Aeshi]

How'd ya get past upper southforge without casting war blessing?

[wary wanderer]

Quote:

Originally written by Tarrasque:
How'd ya get past upper southforge without casting war blessing?

Tarrasuqe, for someone who (at least according to his or her signature) places value in the karma rating, simply repeating a joke that was cute the first time [but tiring the second] is probably not the way to get a fourth star...

[Lilith]

Man. Wingbolts make the Fens easy, even without magic. I've got three of them now, and am levelling up off the endlessly-respawning rogues in Central Fens. Unlike practically every other source of endless opponents, the rogues in the Fens actually give XP, so I intend to kill them until they stop doing so.

[Slariton]

Quote:

Originally written by Cryptozoology:
In hindsight, that fight would have been a lot easier if I'd had a Charged Vlish.

[Lilith]

I'm now level 33 and have cleared out most of Monarch's lair, including killing Khyryk and chatting with the Warped Creator. Wait, strike that, reverse it.

 

I beat Monarch with nothing but cryoas and vlish in my last Lifecrafter game, so, well, I don't see him being much of a problem this time. Even without magic.

 

Update: Monarch was disappointingly easy. For some reason his AI broke and he just sit around and let me beat on him for the first 3 rounds or so of the fight.

 

Hey, am I the only one who thinks the lies you tell to the leader you don't give Monarch's papers to are really, really weak? I have 10 Leadership, I ought to be able to come up with something better than "the papers were destroyed in the fight"!

[Lilith]

Whew. Helping Shaper Horis was another interesting challenge. Without any effective healing ability to keep her alive, I had to absorb one of my Wingbolts, make three Glaahks, bless them with a rod of battle, haste them with speed spores and have them attack the kyshakk while my shock trooper shot at it with a submission baton. In between shots I had to use healing spores, because every 3 or 4 rounds I wouldn't stun it heavily enough and it'd attack someone, usually Horis. Total item usage count: 2 Rod of Battle charges, 2 Shielding Spores, 3 Speed Spores, about 3 packs of Submission Thorns and 10 Healing Spores.

 

Made a beeline for Poryphra and bought two levels of Create Rotghroth. Verdict: huge disappointment. They have slightly more HP than my wingbolts and hit slightly harder in melee. I absorbed them and made 2 more wingbolts instead.

[Slariton]

I am pleased to see that Glaahks are continuing to be useful in this challenge, despite being more vulnerable than Wingbolts.

[Lilith]

Helped all five Infiltrators, then went back to kill them. The Blasted Greaves and Stasis Shield should both serve me well. It's so easy when you're evil.

 

And because I am not entirely sane, I decided to take on Matala. Naturally I took the precaution of destroying his restoration pylons before waking him up -- no point making a long fight even longer. He's quite vulnerable to magical damage (well, more vulnerable than he is to any *other* sort of damage), so my squad of five Wingbolts was taking down his HP at a reasonable pace. My shocktrooper was relegated to spore-tossing duty, because she sure wasn't going to be inflicting any significant damage.

 

The only real problem was the last stretch, where I had to deal with a pumped-up Drakon hitting me for heavy damage *and* a hasted Matala hitting my entire group with fire twice a round. Sending in one Wingbolt to melee range with him seemed to increase the chance that he'd waste some of his AP moving around and only use his fire attack once, sometimes not even catching everyone within its radius. Even so, by the end of the fight half my squad was running around terrified from the damage they'd taken. In the end, I managed to kill him without losing any Wingbolts, but only barely -- I used up most of my healing and major healing spores.

[Slariton]

Thuryl, this challenge is proving far too easy for you.

 

So it's obvious what the next one has to be. The Trakovite Royale. No canisters, no spells, *and* no creations.

[Kelandon]

Also, don't use your skill points, and no equipment.

 

As I recall, I beat GF1 and GF2 (the first time) without using any magic, because I didn't really understand the game mechanics. It was just me and my pair of fyorae, who never died and never got re-absorbed.

[Aeshi]

I presume that means no using dbugkill either?

 

Quote:

Originally written by wary wanderer:

Quote:

Originally written by Tarrasque:

How'd ya get past upper southforge without casting war blessing?

Tarrasuqe, for someone who (at least according to his or her signature) places value in the karma rating, simply repeating a joke that was cute the first time [but tiring the second] is probably not the way to get a fourth star...

Actually I couldn't care less about those lousy stars!

[Delicious Vlish]

Charged Vlish...

 

The Black and Decker Vlishy Squisher. Plugs in to any pylon for easy recharging.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Facepalming Hecatonchire:
Thuryl, this challenge is proving far too easy for you.

Honestly? You're right. There are some parts that have actually been easier than both my Servile and my Lifecrafter, since being able to neglect magic skills and use my entire essence reserve on creations means a bigger and better creation army, and I can make up for the lack of buffs with items when I need to. (Also, my Lifecrafter game was my first game, so I wasn't as good at optimising.) The only thing that really hurts me is the lack of healing.

Quote:

So it's obvious what the next one has to be. The Trakovite Royale. No canisters, no spells, *and* no creations.

I went entirely without canisters and creations (except for joinable NPCs) in my Servile game, and didn't particularly miss the loss.

I think going without all three would actually be feasible with extensive use of pods, crystals and wands. I predict that Matala and the Sandros Mine bosses would both pose significant problems. Matala would probably be beatable if I had enough pods to burn, while the shades and even the Forgotten One could be dealt with using a baton to evade their slowing touch. The Old Golem... I might try to stick a bunch of Steel Spines on my equipment and let the backlash damage kill him while I desperately attempt to heal.

I don't see how I could possibly help Shaper Horis, except maybe with massive use of Null Wands and Ensnaring Fibers. I'm not convinced that would be enough.

[Good Canisters]

Quote:

Originally written by Tarrasque:
I presume that means no using dbugkill either?

Quote:

Originally written by wary wanderer:

Quote:

Originally written by Tarrasque:
How'd ya get past upper southforge without casting war blessing?

Tarrasuqe, for someone who (at least according to his or her signature) places value in the karma rating, simply repeating a joke that was cute the first time [but tiring the second] is probably not the way to get a fourth star...

Actually I couldn't care less about those lousy stars!

And now you have one

[Lilith]

Victory!

 

I made my way through Chapter 5 without too much difficulty. Killing Drosstro so as to get her ring was the only really tricky part; I had to have everybody sit in the far corner and wait for the cryodrayks to come to me so I wouldn't be overwhelmed while trying to make my escape.

 

Of course, after getting to Northforge Citadel I had to do the Sealed Catacombs, just to see if I could. By this point my shocktrooper was level 42, and had 6 wingbolts. 10 Endurance (including item bonuses from the Forbidden Band and Blasted Greaves) meant she had 400ish HP and could take a hit or two if necessary.

 

The Tralls and the Clawbug Queen went down pretty easily; the Electrified Trall had to be taken down with a combination of Wingbolt melee and reaper baton fire, but didn't hit hard enough to pose a real threat.

 

Eye Mindtaker Fhonge was more of an annoyance. Since my Wingbolts couldn't do much to him, my shocktrooper had to provide supporting fire with her reaper baton. Even with 10 points in Dexterity and Missile Weapons and a couple of Ivory Skulls on my armour, my shocktrtooper was only hitting 75% of the time, but that was enough to wear him down. Meanwhile, I kept one Wingbolt at melee range; its melee attacks only had a 39% hit rate, but it encouraged the eyebeast to use its own weak melee attack instead of Aura of Flames. Only one of my Wingbolts was charmed during the battle, and he spent the next few rounds ineffectually attacking another Wingbolt.

 

On to the Titan. I couldn't very well sneak past him with 6 creations in tow, so I just had to face him with his machinery still active. The magical damage was insignificant to my Wingbolts anyway, so I just had to make sure my shocktrooper didn't die from it.

 

Naturally, the group shielding, blessing and speed items all came out for this fight. First form wasn't so bad -- he got one hit in with Aura of Flames, and I promptly healed the damage with spores.

 

Second form was a problem. I had taken the precaution of using not one but three charges from my Rod of Alacrity before the fight, so his group-slowing ability wouldn't shut me down. Even without that to worry about, he hit hard enough to be a serious threat. My wingbolts attacked him while my shocktrooper spammed Torrent Gems to take out his kyshakks and used healing spores when necessary. I lost one Wingbolt to this form, but I'd only recently shaped it and it hadn't gained any levels yet, so it was no great loss.

 

The third form wasn't much of a threat in itself, but made some nasty creations. My wingbolts took out the rotdhizons as quickly as possible, with my shocktrooper again providing support with torrent gems (I'd collected about 17 throughout the course of the game, and had 9 left by the end of this fight). All in all, I spent about 2 rounds killing each form, but it sure felt like longer.

 

With the Titan out of the way, I went in to clear out the Sentinels. The Southern Sentinel put up a fight, but was hardly any worse than the Titan; the other two were laughable.

 

Finally, I went back to Northforge Warrens for the Shaper endgame. Just so I could show off a little more, I cleared out the Inner Shaping Halls entirely without the assistance of Alwan's troops. The patrols weren't hard, and the rebel bigwigs around the control panel could be lured out one at a time.

 

When I get time, I just might try that no-magic, no-canister, no-shaping challenge.

 

Endgame screenshots for your edification:

 

 

Complete lack of investment in magic pays off.

 

 

My inventory was about this full for most of chapters 4 and 5, by the way. The empty space in the upper right corner is where my speed spores used to be before I used them all up.

[Synergy]

Quote:

Originally written by Cryptozoology:
Unlike practically every other source of endless opponents, the rogues in the Fens actually give XP, so I intend to kill them until they stop doing so.

During the beta, the spawning fen rogues gave no XP. I'm not sure if anyone else did, but shortly after I complained about this, they began to give surprisingly generous XP.

You're welcome.

-S-

P.S. Casting speed or using a Rod of Alacrity three times before a fight will negate the slowing effects of drakon fire? If so, this is news to me. Perhaps someone can elaborate on how casting cumulative same spells of this or any other kind is worthwhile.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by 7Synergy7:
P.S. Casting speed or using a Rod of Alacrity three times before a fight will negate the slowing effects of drakon fire? If so, this is news to me. Perhaps someone can elaborate on how casting cumulative same spells of this or any other kind is worthwhile.

Hasting repeatedly is generally not powerful enough to negate the slowing from a direct attack, but the Titan's second form also has the ability to mildly slow the entire party. If you only use the Rod of Alacrity once, you end up slowed, and shortly afterwards, killed. Three times is enough that you stay hasted after it tries to slow you -- it'll still slow whoever it actually hits, but not everyone else.

[Randomizer]

I saw the same thing that multiple hastes reduces slowing effects, but I only used 2 and got reduced to normal speed.

 

Getting by the Titan with a swarm of creations requires going into fight mode and wall hugging past him in a line so he doesn't attack. I do it all the time to take out the 3 sentinels first and shut off the pylons. I'm surprised you didn't use madness gems to slow the Titan and convert his summoned creations to your side. It works exceptional well with the Southern sentinel.

 

Congratulations on the challenge.

[Aeshi]

Wow good job on getting through with no spells!

[Slariton]

Applause.