. Normal mode with this solo guy was tough at the beginning but quickly became so easy that he didn't even take any damage during the final battle! Heart of Fury is seriously testing his limits, though. Some notes and self-imposed limits:- I'm using Weidu's mod for bug fixes, infinite stacking, and the collector's edition CD (I don't view these as cheating, as the collector's edition is legal and infinite stacking is just for convenience, not power)
- I never found Symbol of Hopelessness in normal mode, so I don't have access to it.
- I am purposefully not using any summon creatures, but charming/dominating enemies is OK.
- No running away from a map if I've already started engaging a group of enemies. Note that I can go back if I kill one group and haven't *started* fighting another group.
My usual tactic has been applying the following buffs:
Shield, Ghost Armor, Protection from Missiles, Stoneskin
Mirror Image (using 5 copies), Blur, Improved Invisibility
Fireshield Red, Fireshield Blue
Haste, Emotion Hope, Bull's Strength, Protection From Evil, Mind Blank
Then I wade in there, wielding Phaen's Staff (the HOF one that grants +3 intelligence) draw as many enemies as I can to me, and blast away with Delayed Blast Fireball, Horrid Wilting, Wail of the Banshee, or Mass Dominate, depending on the situation and my mood (I hate using the same things over and over again, even if they're the most effective so I vary it up).
Note that I did find 2 Tymora's Loops the first time through, and I stole Ned's Lucky Knucky (after dominating him and then pickpocketing him about 100 times!!), so I now have a luck bonus of +8! Over half of my hits are criticals now, and with dirty fighting, I've been able to blind and slow quite a few critters, despite the monsters having HOF fortitude saves. I guess averaging 3 criticals a round will do that!
My damage output with the Greatsword of the Soulless is about 27-34 (depending on how Bull's Strength does and whether I turn Power Attack on) and 54-68 with criticals (note the damage output produces a constant number because of the luck items!). The Fire Shields each do about 33 damage (with elemental feats and luck) per hit, giving me 66 for each time I'm hit.
However, my AC is laughable in HoF mode, hovering at around 40 with haste, 45 with expertise instead of powerattack, and 49 when I use the shield + 1-handed weapon. OK for goblins and orcs, but getting increasingly worthless now that I've left the Ice Temple. Tensor's Transformation gets me up to 55-56, which is still decent for now, but even with that I get hit a fair bit, and this will only increase. And Tensor's doesn't let me replenish my Images, so it's mostly used to clean up the last few guys in an area.
One really tricky battle was against Lysara in the Ice Temple. I probably could have used Mass Dominate and made it really easy, but instead I case Delayed Fireball because I love the idea of roasting all those icy women! With its speed of 7, all of my images were gone before I cast it (stupid ice priestess slings!) and I was down to half life before it finally went off! I took off like a bat out of hell stopping to use Kegslayer on the Crystal Golem (*plunk*), making it to the jail, where I realized I couldn't cast anything because of the anti-magic effect! Several winter wolves were hot on my tail and they had some serious bite, doing about 30 damage per hit! I ran back into the that leads to Cathin, but I realized I hadn't cleared that section, so was faced with a couple of priestesses in that hall as well! Aieee! Nowhere to run, and under my own personal rules, no retreating from the map.
I finally fetched a Sanctuary potion from my belt and gulped it down, and hid all the way in one of the side rooms off the main entrance hall. There I regrouped, casting Trollish Fortitude and gulping healing potions like mad. I refreshed my Mirror Images and Haste and went sneaking out (thanks Improved Invisibility!) to see how to deal with the mobs, now scattered all over the place. I took out the Wolves and priestesses near Cathin's room first with a Delayed Fireball and some furious Thunder's Shock (Winged Blight's HOF cousin) action. Some more mobs outside and in the jail fell easily as well. Finally I went back to Lysara's room and found about 8 priestesses still there with slings as deadly as ever. However, some were still healing each other so not all were firing away, which gave me my chance to cast the super slow Wail of the Banshee, ending 5 of them then and there. I wiped out the rest pretty easily, but they still managed to knock me down below 100 HP. I then noticed Lysara wasn't there. Prowling around, I found some secret passages and finally discovered her roaming aimlessly, all by her lonesome. Thanks for the key, love!
Another randomly tough battle was just outside the wandering village, where the Ferocious Dire Wolves laid claim. At first there were just four of them, so I went in there with Delayed Fireball (I had used my Wails and Dominate on the previous battle on that map) hoping to mop them up quickly. Of course, 4-5 more came out as I cast and I was soon surrounded. No problem, I thought, as I fired up more Images and blasted DBFB again. However, the wolves kept coming, and it took 3 DBFB just to take one down! Soon I was out of Images and DBFB, surrounded with nowhere to run.
As I lay there dying, I thought about how I don't like resting too much, but I probably should have done so before this battle to get my 9th level spells back! Then I remembered: Nathanie's Ring of the Ram! No, I didn't give it back to him; I'm as experienced as I can be, so why not keep it? The HoF version lets you cast Dimension Door for some reason (or did this come from one of Weidu's mods?), and I used it to get my butt out of the mob, at which point I ran around the map being chased by those fast little furballs. I refreshed Haste and ran far enough away to begin my Trollish Fortitude + potions healing, running away some more as they got close. Still, with no images and my protections starting to wear out, casting spells like Horrid Wilting would be horribly risky. Instead I started casting my Skull Traps and the wolves obliged by running right into them. I killed 2 and injured a few this way, but I still had 5 more chasing me when I ran out of Traps!
Even one of them would be enough to take me out on a 1 on 1 melee duel, so instead I got out my Bag of Holding and drew forth Cloudkiss. Kissing the blade for good luck, I hurled this mighty axe again and again, running and hurling, running and hurling, for what seemed like ages. I had to refresh Haste two more times before it was just me and 1 wolf (at Hurt), so I decided enough was enough. Tensor's Transformation turned me into a real manly man and I wrestled with the wolf until we both bled in the snow, with my heart the only one still beating.
God this is fun! Anyone else have more solo HOF (or normal mode) stories out there?
