Ascension Mod

[Abdel Adrian]

First post and already a long rant filled with negative stuff.

I am a long time Baldur's Gate player. I bought Baldur's Gate immediately after release and played it to death. Of course I bought ToSC and SoA and ToB immediately as soon as they came out.

After a while I learned about the mod scene and Ascension. I installed it but my computer couldn't really handle the light show at the time so I gave up. I played some of the Tactics Mod meanwhile. (I really liked Improved Illyich and killed him and his gang with several different characters.)

Some time ago I bought a new PC but Baldur's Gate was not on my mind at the time, so I didn't try Ascension immediately. Then I started to play Baldur's Gate again to build myself a char who would run through the entire Saga - and I did.

Now I am in the last battle with Melissan and THIS IS BULL****!!!!!!
Let me elaborate:

My party:
Abdel Adrian - Human Berserker
Keldorn
Jaheira
Sir Anomen
Imoen
Edwin

Special guest: Balthasar

I play on Core and everybody is at about 7.5 Million XP (I admit to abusing the Duergar waves at Sendai's Enclave )

I am at the point where killing the Five is no problem at all. But Melissan rapes my party after that. She is just too fast and summons too many demons. This wouldn't be a problem if she would stop running around at a speed that nobody can keep up with.

The Bhaalspawn ability to control demons is total crap. I have yet to see a successful use of this. And even if I was successful - she would just summon more. My party is usually dead by the time we managed to reduce her to Near Death two times. After that my Berserker runs after Melissan who is Barely Injured (again) and who summons so many demons that it is rediculous. Often I have to teleport myself out of a horde because there is literally nowhere to go on the screen. The Mariliths keep casting Cloudkills so that everything is orange and Melissan is still running around and stops only to summon more demons.

tl / dr

**** THIS MOD
Also: I call bull**** on the people who say that is possible to solo Ascension with every character class. Make a video and upload it to youtube - then I might believe it.

[Stworca]

[url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/album.php?albumid=38&pictureid=219"]I assume you mean this part[/url]

Click the link in my signature. Ascension + SCSII on Insane (read the sticky threads, my friend)

The Bhaalspawn ability to control demons is total crap. I have yet to see a successful use of this.

Melissan automatically controls all the demons on the map.

My party is usually dead by the time we managed to reduce her to Near Death two times. After that my Berserker runs after Melissan who is Barely Injured (again) and who summons so many demons that it is rediculous. Often I have to teleport myself out of a horde because there is literally nowhere to go on the screen. The Mariliths keep casting Cloudkills so that everything is orange and Melissan is still running around and stops only to summon more demons.

Conserve whirlwinds on this phase, surround her so she cannot run away - if needed toss in a simulacrum and a non-demon summon or two to help you surround her-, use dragon's breath centered on her to knock all the summons away. If you have only one whirlwind-using warrior, then this IS the problem right here. She is very easy if you have a lot of physical damage ready to unleash.

It would be perfect if you could make her focus on Edwin or Imoen, but if you boost your berserker weapon resistance to 80+ he'd be an even better choice.

If you cannot push out enough punishment before the summons overrun you, you'll have to commence operation immortal. It's the easiest as Sorcerer (Mage if you prepare carefuly). Protect yourself from everything and replenish your spells every now and then by either project images, simulacrums or high-wisdom wish.

If you're a warrior it's much, MUCH trickier to solo this b... lady.. or even tank the adds alone You absolutely require the cloak of the sewers (green blob of slime), aswell as all the HLA's you can muster + FoA and DoE.

Needless to say boots of speed or 80+ DR are your only chances of not dying to summons if only the warrior survives.

In any case, it takes very, very long without insane melee dps.

If its magic that kills you, get a bunch of the "All saves are successfull" potions for everyone, maybe also the +50MR ones

For more info - [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn-9/guide-to-tactical-mods-spoilers-116063.html#post1068556"]here.[/url]

[Abdel Adrian]

Conserve whirlwinds on this phase, surround her so she cannot run away - if needed toss in a simulacrum and a non-demon summon or two to help you surround her-, use dragon's breath centered on her to knock all the summons away. If you have only one whirlwind-using warrior, then this IS the problem right here. She is very easy if you have a lot of physical damage ready to unleash.

Thanks, but quite frankly, do you think I would have come this far if I didn't know this already?

My char, Keldorn and Jaheira all have GWWs. But at this point in the fight my char is the only one who has some left (about four usually). Also Melissan is quite good at knocking me back when I just activated a GWW, which usually means a wasted GWW.

And if I would save the GWW for later I wouldn't even come this far.

[Abdel Adrian]

For more info - [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn-9/guide-to-tactical-mods-spoilers-116063.html#post1068556"]here.[/url]

Wait a minute ...
you wrote there

Ascension Phase five : How many more aces do you have?! - Picture -

Last phase of this fight starts when all of the bhaalspawn die. Its rather easy compared to the hell you just went through but.. here we go..
First of all Melissan heals fully.
Second of all Melissan summons.. a true army of minions. Alu-fiends, succubi and cambions. They have HLAs.

She does not buff in any way, she doesnt cast any dangerous spell. Depending on how many warriors you have, you might want to just activate whirlwind on them all and chopp her to pieces. It is possible. Dragons Breath centered on Melissan will knock all the adds away, giving you more time. Once her hp reaches zero..

..Congratulations, You've just finished one of the most "badass" fights in RPGs

As I said, I have brought her down to Near Death at least two times but she always returns to the center and heals herself with the essence. Did I forget to do something or is this normal behavior? And if it is: how many times do I need to bring her to Near Death before she stops healing herself?

[Stworca]

Wait a minute.. She keeps teleporting to the center and healing herself? What?

I never had her do anything like that. Then again, phase 5 never lasted longer than a few rounds. Can you perhaps measure the time after which she teleports to the centre (1 round = 6s)? Or maybe it's when you kill the adds? She casts a specific spell? Are you transformed into Ravager? Are you using any bhaalspawn power?

[Abdel Adrian]

Wait a minute.. She keeps teleporting to the center and healing herself? What?

I never had her do anything like that. Then again, phase 5 never lasted longer than a few rounds

Yes she does. Whenever she is Near Death I have to keep hitting her for a while (I suppose to the point where she would die) and then she cries something like "No, this cannot be, must get more essence." or something like that and teleports herself to the center and is immediately uninjured again. I managed to stay alive for two times she did this, and I assumed I have to kill her three times for her to stay dead.

But your post got me thinking. Maybe I should try ctrl-y to see if she is actually killable.

[Stworca]

Toss in the info about which Ascension version are you using. This could be working as intended, in which case it'd be time for me to install BG2 again and investigate. It's possible that SCSII scripting removed the summon-loop that is in vanilla Asc. OR it's just a timed script, as i said before.
edit : I just browsed a few Ascension videos, and some have Melissan teleport around, some have Melissan heal herself to full every now and then, some have her do both things, some have her just summon more and more, but never heal except for "Heal" spell.. I'm confussed.

At any rate.. A cheesy wild card in your situation is wish spell. "Horrid Willing on everyone" option will kill every single summon that there is. Try turtling up in a corner (one of the smaller islands from phase 2) and have Edwin keep casting wish whenever it gets too crowded. Keep casting till one of the option is ADHW. For even more cheese you can use spell trap, pfmw, ii -> Chain contingency with 2 projected images -> Re-fill your original mage spells by casting power words on spell trap -> Unleash Wish spells from images -> Unleash every other spell you manage before they disappear -> Repeat ad infinite.
For mega, ultra cheddar you can tell the images to cast wishes from scrolls (infinite).
Not enough? Have BOTH Edwin and Imoen do this.
Everyone who is not Edwin and / or Imoen would hold the bottleneck passage to your island, so that you fight only a few foes at a time. Sure some will eventualy teleport, but not all of them, and it buys you time.

For the time when everyone in your party dies, except the main char ; save Vhalion Helmet to make a simulacrum, switch to Roranach's Horn + DoE and you have a simulacrum + 70% blunt resistance. Pop Hardiness for Blunt Immunity, Pierce & Slash 60%. You may want to use Ravager instead of dual flails, but you will get hit for much higher values in such case.
Whenever she summons another wave of countless terrors, start running around, away from the humongous waves of summons.
Use scrolls of protection from magic, and quaff magic protection and magic resistance potions when you run out of scrolls.
It would be perfect if you could time your "Focus" power so that you are able to hack stuff to pieces during Melissans timestops. It is very tricky, and i ever only managed to get it working for the first one.

Just some ideas from the top of my head.

As for Meli running just too damn fast. I am 95% sure that Boots of Speed stacked with either Haste, Improved haste (spell, scroll or bracers) or Oil of speed for massive running boost.

[Abdel Adrian]

Toss in the info about which Ascension version are you using.

Ascension v1.4.23 which according to the readme should be identical to the latest version 1.4.24 minus the Italian translation.

Also: ctrl-y worked just fine and Melissan did not retreat and heal herself. This is strange but in line with what you said. Apparently she does not retreat if you deal the damage quickly.

Maybe I should try some Pierce Shield + Abi-Dalzim's on this bitc...

[Stworca]

I will be more then happy to try and help you with this one, and overjoyed if you add the "long way" tactic to our forum guide!

Is each wave bigger than the previous one? Turtle up (with the wish-willing corner tactic) and check it out I know that they are infinite on insane (scripts)

Also, try to figure out what exactly makes her retreat and heal herself. Is it only time based, or is it triggered when all demons die? (or ANY demons?)

Edit : Just got that one.. Have you tried demon-charming the Solars perhaps. To increase the chances of successfull demon-charm on a solar do it with your Simmulacrum aswell. Or, if it doesn't work, using the mind control circlet from underdark (Melissan's demon control isn't a passive, constant effect, she also needs to 'roll'.) ? If not a solar, get Sarevok with the circlet. I believe his death is not required to advance to last phase, and his deathbringer assault is very nice.

[Abdel Adrian]

Also, try to figure out what exactly makes her retreat and heal herself. Is it only time based, or is it triggered when all demons die?

Definitely not based on demon death - I don't even bother killing them at this point. I try to kill Melissan. And even if I kill a few, they are replaced soon enough.

Edit : Just got that one.. Have you tried demon-charming the Solars perhaps? Or, if it doesn't work, using the mind control circlet from underdark? If not a solar, get Sarevok with the circlet. I believe his death is not required to advance to last phase, and his deathbringer assault is very nice.

Solars? I haven't seen any Solars. Or do you mean the two Fallen Solars who appear with Irenicus and Bodhi?
I think I tried to charm them with the mind control circlet, but I am not sure. I think a tried and it didn't work. Sarevok can be controlled with the circlet but I did not bother as Balthazar kept attacking him anyway and Sarevok turned hostile again. But I could wait until Balthazar is dead and then charm him. That could be something. On the other hand he will deal no damage at all as he apparently uses a normal unenchanted sword - he is unable to harm Imoen who wears the Aslyferund Chain.

[Stworca]

Yes, Sarevok's sword is non-magical (i guess Weimer did it so that mages using protection from magical weapons and nothing else would get one-shotted) but i am unsure if Melissan has any permanent weapon immunities.
Even if she is, its possible to access Sarevok's inventory screen, although i'm not sure if it's not all grayed out. i take him exactly for the non-magical weapon.

Solars? I haven't seen any Solars. Or do you mean the two Fallen Solars who appear with Irenicus and Bodhi?

There should be additional fallen Solars spawning when Melissan enters the combat. (right after you kill one of the five) But if they don't, its not important. It's probably on higher difficulty.
Regarding the demon-control. Melissan automatically gains control of all demons only when she first enters combat, afterwards she uses the exact same skill that you also have (except with better chance of success) single target, with cooldown.

Now that i mention difficulty, on Core no demons should spawn iirc....
And Melissan never ran away from me, she always came charging at full speed.. She acts as if the target she chosed had immunity to her damage (Via spells or damage resistance) or a borked movement script is the reason here.

Regardless, i recommend a swift re-install, just in case, and do add [url="http://www.gibberlings3.net/bg2fixpack/"]g3 fixpack[/url] on top of ascension if you haven't already. BG2 can bugg out very easily, and the end-boss running away from your party the entire time seems like a bugg. But i may be wrong, and it could, for some reason, be natural behaviour. Every difficulty in Ascension gives enemies differend scripts (and abilities), try fighting her on other one, maybe she won't run away.

Are you perhaps willing to switch some people in the party? I know a certain Haer'Daelis would dish out a lot more damage than Sir Anomen, not to mention the living Sarevok with a 2h weapon and more.

edit : This may be a silly question... but are you perhaps forgetting about protection from evil spell? Just checking.

[Abdel Adrian]

Meanwhile: I discovered that I am running an unpatched game. :laugh:

Yeah, I installed the Widescreen Mod and Ascension but forgot the official ToB Patch. I don't know if this could be the source of my troubles but it seems likely.

I did a clean install, patched the game but my saves wouldn't work properly. So if I want to use my old saves I have to deal with the unpatched game.

This is sad and hilarious at the same time.

[Abdel Adrian]

edit : This may be a silly question... but are you perhaps forgetting about protection from evil spell? Just checking.

Indeed I do forget about it. But I also thought that it only protects you from demons you summon yourself (per Gate Spell). Never relied much on this spell.

Are you telling me that Melissan's Demons would ignore me if I was protected from evil?

[Stworca]

Indeed I do forget about it. But I also thought that it only protects you from demons you summon yourself (per Gate Spell). Never relied much on this spell.

Are you telling me that Melissan's Demons would ignore me if I was protected from evil?

Not the alu-fiends, but balors & co just might. It protects from all summoned demons, now it just depends how did Weimer code the demons in Ascension. That's how you survive pit fiend- summon chains as a lvl 8 party after all.

And Pfe is dispellable too.

Note that i never had problems with the demons in ascension, so i cannot be 100% sure if pfe stops them. But it stops every other demon in game, except demogorgon & chromatic one that is.