New Lich in the Docks (Battle Description/Spoilers Included)
Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 8:21 pm
WOW! This lich is brilliantly scripted! (It is part of Weimer's Tactics Mod.) I had actually forgotten about him and his nasty-nasty. Perhaps because I tend to drop by after Underdark with high-level mage/sorcerors armed with Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, Dragon Breath, Project Image, etc.
Early on, the challenge is great
I am still relatively low level, having done only (improved) Mae'var, Haer-Dalis, Umar Hills, Copper Coronet and the other "relatively easier" quests. No Nature's Beauty, no spell that can actually touch the lichie. Party consists of kensai/mage (kensai still inactive), Chloe, Tashia, Jaheira, Mazzy and Jan.
The skeleton warriors and bone golem are not an issue, really, a sunfire and some quick smacking takes them out. The lich though! It is not a cheesy lich, dropping triple abi-dalzims, summoning planetars and such stuff. No. It likes to play tactically and give you a chance while making it very hard to beat her (it's a female lich, no?). So, there is a lot of greater malison followed by death fog/incendiary cloud/meteor storm/ice storm as well as dragon fear, symbol stun and the like. Skeleton Warriors cast their fair share too ~ horror, confuse, fear. The lichie likes to target all your characters in turn or all together (great!), making positioning quite important (space is limited). Besides the lich is in an elevated position, so you need to go around to get at her.
Here's a rough description of last night's successful encounter (I got her on the third try with a bit of luck):
1) No substantial pre-buffing (gotta roleplay right?); spellcasters had stoneskins, everyone was protected from fear and hasted. Chloe drank a potion of invulnerability right before entering (!!) and my PC cast mirror image.
2) Auto-paused before talk was initiated and gave orders to everyone. My PC (Arky) ran toward the middle of the skeleton warriors. Mazzy aimed to land an acid arrow on the lich before scripted protections kick in. Tashia and Jan hurled Magic Missiles at the closest skeleton warrior. Chloe was ordered to start smacking the closest skeleton warrior while Jaheira started to summon a fire elemental.
3) After unpause, the lichie was indeed hit once by Mazzy, but then super-buffed into complete invulnerability. Mazzy cast strength (innate) and started firing at the closest skeleton warrior with +2 arrows (Tuigan's Bow). Jan and Tashia ran toward the edges of the room and drank invisibility potions (nothing really they could do). In the meantime, lots of greater malison, doom, horror, chaos, etc. flew my way, but no one got scared or confused, yet. Arky in position (just far enough not to hurt Jaheira and Chloe) cast sunfire, damaging the skellies pretty bad but not the bone golem. She then ran, but was surrounded and couldn't move (geez!). The closest skeleton warrior died; Chloe took on the bone golem while Jaheira cast Bless.
4) Lichie hit Arky with a flame arrow (a single one, not 3, how polite!), dragon fear, and cast ice storm. Then (talk about improved alacrity!) went invisible and re-cast prot. from magical weapons. Arky could by then cast Mislead, running out of that tight spot and drinking a fat healing potion. Moved the decoy too, but despite high HP, it was being lacerated. Jan summoned some fodder and sent them together with the fire elemental toward the lich.
5) Bone Golem was almost dead when Lich started pounding on Mazzy with Melf's Meteors, then cast Greater Malison (again), stopped time and cast death fog, incendiary cloud and meteor storm (centered on Mazzy). Jaheira immediately started casting Zone of Sweet Air but was interrupted by the cloud/fog damage. Lich started attacking the summons, giving us a second to heal and reorganize. Jaheira cast a second Zone of Sweet Air, succeeded, but then the lich, having death-spelled the summons into oblivion, decided to target Jaheira. Chloe had killed the bone golem and was finishing off the remaining skellies (still 3, but all at "near death", or "badly injured") while Jan with find traps active got close to the lich trying to dispel the illusion (bypasses Spell Immunity: Divination -> ingenious tactic by UserUnfriendly ) and succeeded (he's good at it!). Not that I actually had any spells with which to target the lich. The latter, having cast a simulacrum was now double and both were hitting poor Jaheira with Melf's, stunning her with a symbol stun (darn those greater malisons).
6) Jan summoned more fodder (wand), Mazzy summoned a djinni from the Trademeet lamp, but everyone was concerned about Jaheira. Tashia swiftly cast improved invisibility on the latter and ran away, getting hit with melf's but eventually drinking an invisibility potion. Chloe had finished the skeletons and drank a healing potion, running to hide in a corner.
7) Lichies (now 2 of them) started pounding on Mazzy, casting death fog again, killing poor Mazzy while everyone ran away from the cloud. Stunned invisible Jaheira was (very fortunately) out of the cloud. To my surprise, some thief slugs spawned in right by the lich (lucky!), not sure why, but they occupied the lich so I could reorganize. Raised Mazzy with the rod of ressurection, everyone drank heal potions followed by invisibility potions. The lich was demolishing the spawns and summons and cast teleport field making everything very messy with everyone (not my party invisible and tucked in by the right wall) being teleported around.
8) Wait, wait, wait. Jaheira could finally move, drank a fat potion of healing. Arky cast Protection from Fear, Jaheira summoned a second fire elemental, ressurected Mazzy got her stuff, Jan summoned some more fodder into the teleport field.
9) Lich went invisible, cast prot. from magical weapons followed by greater malison and Khelben's Whip on Jan (meaningless). Everyone was ready for an organized rush on the lich, except the latter was invisible now. Jan activated find traps and went into the teleport field, being teleported like crazy but eventually revealing the lich. Lichie stopped time, dumped two incendiary clouds and an ice storm on Jaheira, who ran away and successfully cast a third Zone of Sweet Air. Mazzy targeted lich with Piercing Arrows, Chloe, the Fire Elemental and the vampiric wolves (wand summons) got in the vicinity of the lich.
10) Simulacrum vanished! (time run out?) Protection from Magical Weapons had worn out, so Chloe, Mazzy and Jaheira actually got through! All over (it usually is), I thought, but no-no! Far from it! Great scripting! The lichie used a scroll of invisibility, stopped time, cast protection from magical weapons followed by the deadly combo improved haste -> black blade of disaster -> tenser's transformation (going from "badly injured" to "barely injured"). Jan detecting illusions again, once the time stop was finished, dynamics were quite reversed: I was the one running for my life!
11) Mazzy wasn't fast enough and it took a couple of hits with that awful Black Blade for her to die again, 8 levels drained right before she went down (!) Fortunately, teleport field was still active, so the lich herself was being teleported not being able to focus on a character. (This is actually what killed me the first two times I tried this battle last night ~~ once the improve-hasted-BBoD-tensor-transformed lich locks on the PC things get ugly). I raised Mazzy a second time, she ran to get her bow and in a final offensive I concentrated all firepower on the lich (everyone was being teleported around LOL)
12) Tashia summoned her spirit animal, then started slinging bullets. Arky summoned some fodder and also started slinging bullets. Jan equipped some bolts of biting and started firing with his brand new +2 crossbow. Chloe drank an oil of speed, then activated kai and started pounding on lich. Jaheira (pitchwife +5 and belm, wearing boots of speed) also started pounding. Mazzy with bracers of archery and piercing arrows, aimed at lich too. Taking only a few hits (chloe was drained 4 levels), healing while being teleported around, I managed to defeat the lich at last!
What a great battle! Thank you Mr. Blucher, thank you Mr. Weimer! The item you get as a reward is very nice (I won't spoil the ones who don't know) and I definitely felt like I had worked hard to deserve it
What experiences have other people had with this lich? Apparently, using scrolls of protection from undead can be an easy way to take on the nasty-nasty, but Weimer's newest Tactics mod does something about that cheese (great!).
-kaitsuburi
Early on, the challenge is great
I am still relatively low level, having done only (improved) Mae'var, Haer-Dalis, Umar Hills, Copper Coronet and the other "relatively easier" quests. No Nature's Beauty, no spell that can actually touch the lichie. Party consists of kensai/mage (kensai still inactive), Chloe, Tashia, Jaheira, Mazzy and Jan. The skeleton warriors and bone golem are not an issue, really, a sunfire and some quick smacking takes them out. The lich though! It is not a cheesy lich, dropping triple abi-dalzims, summoning planetars and such stuff. No. It likes to play tactically and give you a chance while making it very hard to beat her (it's a female lich, no?). So, there is a lot of greater malison followed by death fog/incendiary cloud/meteor storm/ice storm as well as dragon fear, symbol stun and the like. Skeleton Warriors cast their fair share too ~ horror, confuse, fear. The lichie likes to target all your characters in turn or all together (great!), making positioning quite important (space is limited). Besides the lich is in an elevated position, so you need to go around to get at her.
Here's a rough description of last night's successful encounter (I got her on the third try with a bit of luck):
1) No substantial pre-buffing (gotta roleplay right?); spellcasters had stoneskins, everyone was protected from fear and hasted. Chloe drank a potion of invulnerability right before entering (!!) and my PC cast mirror image.
2) Auto-paused before talk was initiated and gave orders to everyone. My PC (Arky) ran toward the middle of the skeleton warriors. Mazzy aimed to land an acid arrow on the lich before scripted protections kick in. Tashia and Jan hurled Magic Missiles at the closest skeleton warrior. Chloe was ordered to start smacking the closest skeleton warrior while Jaheira started to summon a fire elemental.
3) After unpause, the lichie was indeed hit once by Mazzy, but then super-buffed into complete invulnerability. Mazzy cast strength (innate) and started firing at the closest skeleton warrior with +2 arrows (Tuigan's Bow). Jan and Tashia ran toward the edges of the room and drank invisibility potions (nothing really they could do). In the meantime, lots of greater malison, doom, horror, chaos, etc. flew my way, but no one got scared or confused, yet. Arky in position (just far enough not to hurt Jaheira and Chloe) cast sunfire, damaging the skellies pretty bad but not the bone golem. She then ran, but was surrounded and couldn't move (geez!). The closest skeleton warrior died; Chloe took on the bone golem while Jaheira cast Bless.
4) Lichie hit Arky with a flame arrow (a single one, not 3, how polite!), dragon fear, and cast ice storm. Then (talk about improved alacrity!) went invisible and re-cast prot. from magical weapons. Arky could by then cast Mislead, running out of that tight spot and drinking a fat healing potion. Moved the decoy too, but despite high HP, it was being lacerated. Jan summoned some fodder and sent them together with the fire elemental toward the lich.
5) Bone Golem was almost dead when Lich started pounding on Mazzy with Melf's Meteors, then cast Greater Malison (again), stopped time and cast death fog, incendiary cloud and meteor storm (centered on Mazzy). Jaheira immediately started casting Zone of Sweet Air but was interrupted by the cloud/fog damage. Lich started attacking the summons, giving us a second to heal and reorganize. Jaheira cast a second Zone of Sweet Air, succeeded, but then the lich, having death-spelled the summons into oblivion, decided to target Jaheira. Chloe had killed the bone golem and was finishing off the remaining skellies (still 3, but all at "near death", or "badly injured") while Jan with find traps active got close to the lich trying to dispel the illusion (bypasses Spell Immunity: Divination -> ingenious tactic by UserUnfriendly
) and succeeded (he's good at it!). Not that I actually had any spells with which to target the lich. The latter, having cast a simulacrum was now double and both were hitting poor Jaheira with Melf's, stunning her with a symbol stun (darn those greater malisons).6) Jan summoned more fodder (wand), Mazzy summoned a djinni from the Trademeet lamp, but everyone was concerned about Jaheira. Tashia swiftly cast improved invisibility on the latter and ran away, getting hit with melf's but eventually drinking an invisibility potion. Chloe had finished the skeletons and drank a healing potion, running to hide in a corner.
7) Lichies (now 2 of them) started pounding on Mazzy, casting death fog again, killing poor Mazzy while everyone ran away from the cloud. Stunned invisible Jaheira was (very fortunately) out of the cloud. To my surprise, some thief slugs spawned in right by the lich (lucky!), not sure why, but they occupied the lich so I could reorganize. Raised Mazzy with the rod of ressurection, everyone drank heal potions followed by invisibility potions. The lich was demolishing the spawns and summons and cast teleport field making everything very messy with everyone (not my party invisible and tucked in by the right wall) being teleported around.
8) Wait, wait, wait. Jaheira could finally move, drank a fat potion of healing. Arky cast Protection from Fear, Jaheira summoned a second fire elemental, ressurected Mazzy got her stuff, Jan summoned some more fodder into the teleport field.
9) Lich went invisible, cast prot. from magical weapons followed by greater malison and Khelben's Whip on Jan (meaningless). Everyone was ready for an organized rush on the lich, except the latter was invisible now. Jan activated find traps and went into the teleport field, being teleported like crazy but eventually revealing the lich. Lichie stopped time, dumped two incendiary clouds and an ice storm on Jaheira, who ran away and successfully cast a third Zone of Sweet Air. Mazzy targeted lich with Piercing Arrows, Chloe, the Fire Elemental and the vampiric wolves (wand summons) got in the vicinity of the lich.
10) Simulacrum vanished! (time run out?) Protection from Magical Weapons had worn out, so Chloe, Mazzy and Jaheira actually got through! All over (it usually is), I thought, but no-no! Far from it! Great scripting! The lichie used a scroll of invisibility, stopped time, cast protection from magical weapons followed by the deadly combo improved haste -> black blade of disaster -> tenser's transformation (going from "badly injured" to "barely injured"). Jan detecting illusions again, once the time stop was finished, dynamics were quite reversed: I was the one running for my life!
11) Mazzy wasn't fast enough and it took a couple of hits with that awful Black Blade for her to die again, 8 levels drained right before she went down (!) Fortunately, teleport field was still active, so the lich herself was being teleported not being able to focus on a character. (This is actually what killed me the first two times I tried this battle last night ~~ once the improve-hasted-BBoD-tensor-transformed lich locks on the PC things get ugly). I raised Mazzy a second time, she ran to get her bow and in a final offensive I concentrated all firepower on the lich (everyone was being teleported around LOL)
12) Tashia summoned her spirit animal, then started slinging bullets. Arky summoned some fodder and also started slinging bullets. Jan equipped some bolts of biting and started firing with his brand new +2 crossbow. Chloe drank an oil of speed, then activated kai and started pounding on lich. Jaheira (pitchwife +5 and belm, wearing boots of speed) also started pounding. Mazzy with bracers of archery and piercing arrows, aimed at lich too. Taking only a few hits (chloe was drained 4 levels), healing while being teleported around, I managed to defeat the lich at last!
What a great battle! Thank you Mr. Blucher, thank you Mr. Weimer! The item you get as a reward is very nice (I won't spoil the ones who don't know) and I definitely felt like I had worked hard to deserve it
What experiences have other people had with this lich? Apparently, using scrolls of protection from undead can be an easy way to take on the nasty-nasty, but Weimer's newest Tactics mod does something about that cheese (great!).
-kaitsuburi