Mask o' the Betrayer!

[Tale]

In a world where the gods have walked the ground in the past few decades, being an atheist is a crime against sanity.

 

The wall makes perfect sense in DnD terms. And I think the game put in a very good explanation for it's purpose. Beyond what I had ever presumed before. Before, I had presumed the gods were just jerks, as gods are known to be. Now, not only are they jerks, but they're also bastards.

 

Edit: I just read that Myrkul inhabits the Crown of Horns. O_o

Edited October 26, 2007 by Tale

[Istima Loke]

Sorry for derailing the conversation here but I have to ask, 'cause I have been running mindlessly around for some time now. Where is that ice hag that knows how to defeat the fire in Ashenwoods?

[Tale]

Sorry for derailing the conversation here but I have to ask, 'cause I have been running mindlessly around for some time now. Where is that ice hag that knows how to defeat the fire in Ashenwoods?

She is in the clearing with the two spirit witches and the tree. And by "in the clearing", I mean "in a cave accessed from that map."

[Istima Loke]

hmm, must have missed that part. Thanks a bunch!

[Pop]

Edit: I just read that Myrkul inhabits the Crown of Horns. O_o

He did. If you're familiar with some of the minutae of FR lore (as I am, o yah) you'd know that the Crown of Horns was a powerful artifact (like, awesomely powerful even for an artifact) that eventually possessed those who wore it, as artifacts tend to do. One of the seven sisters got ahold of it and was possessed by Myrkul for a few years, and then the rest of the sisters and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun destroyed it, thus "killing" Myrkul (I think). Mask had a similar trick with the Godsbane shortsword and Cyric ended up breaking that, but for whatever reason Mask ended up just severely weakened instead of dead.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Pop

[Tale]

Where did you read it had been destroyed?

[Pop]

In the FR core book.

 

Thinking back on it (and my mind's getting fuzzier by the second, but I'm fairly certain of this) the crown was broken into three pieces and they were spread across Faerun. In fact, I believe they were reconstituted at some point by a lich. He's in one of the FR supplemental books pertaining to evil groups and villains. He was the "bloated" lich with a phylactery for every bone in his body? An epic villain if there was one.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Pop

[Aram]

In a world where the gods have walked the ground in the past few decades, being an atheist is a crime against sanity.

 

When they're all ****, the right to choose not to follow any of them should not be infringed.

 

Edit: I just read that Myrkul inhabits the Crown of Horns. O_o

He did. If you're familiar with some of the minutae of FR lore (as I am, o yah) you'd know that the Crown of Horns was a powerful artifact (like, awesomely powerful even for an artifact) that eventually possessed those who wore it, as artifacts tend to do. One of the seven sisters got ahold of it and was possessed by Myrkul for a few years, and then the rest of the sisters and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun destroyed it, thus "killing" Myrkul (I think). Mask had a similar trick with the Godsbane shortsword and Cyric ended up breaking that, but for whatever reason Mask ended up just severely weakened instead of dead.

 

Argh! My brains! Too much random incomprehensible lore!

[Xard]

Which reminds me, that encounter with Mask followers was tough as ****, one of the hardest encounters. I wasn't prepared at all for that battle, I thought they would give me quests.

[Tale]

In a world where the gods have walked the ground in the past few decades, being an atheist is a crime against sanity.

 

When they're all ****, the right to choose not to follow any of them should not be infringed.

Saying "**** off" to an all powerful **** is not the brightest of ideas.

 

Which reminds me, that encounter with Mask followers was tough as ****, one of the hardest encounters. I wasn't prepared at all for that battle, I thought they would give me quests.

Sadly, I didn't encounter a single truly hard encounter in the game. Maybe it's because I had 3 characters capable of casting Vampiric Feast and 1 character who could cast it if I just talked to him and asked him to change his class.

 

That spell defines Epic. That encounter was one of several that I simply cast Vampiric Feast on when it looked like a members of my group might fall. After which the battle was over.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Tale

[Pop]

Vampiric Feast was hideously overpowered. I don't remember anything standing up to it in the slightest.

[Xard]

I was way too low-level for that battle and completely unbuffed. If my party would've been fully buffed they wouldn't had a chance. Now my characters were isolated and nearly completely without buffs. Kaelyn, Gann and my PC had enemies everywhere around them with horribly effective sneak attacks. Being flanked all the time meant they'd get sneak attack after sneak attack dealing insane amount of damage (as none of us had any items to give immunity against sa's ) and clerics kept on spamming with their damn spells. Gann was quickly brought down thanks to his low AC and hitpoints. Kaelyn was nearly completely useless although (barely) managed to survive through whole battle. Only use she had was he gathered some of the enemy's attention and thanks or high AC she survived in middle of them (interestingly my PC had clearly higher AC and better tank abilities anyway, but he had much harder time). And few random Mass Heals that took care of summoned shadows. But overall she had nearly no effect on course of battle.

 

Luckily combat casting and high concentrate meaned (on average) only every fourth spell failed which I casted.

 

Only character who wasn't in deep **** was Safiya. To my greatest pleasure priests casted blindness on her all the time and only my spirit shaman had restorations left to deal with them. Too bad he was kinda, uh, busy with those nasty backstabbers.. And eventually restorations ran out (luckily, so did blindness spells). I couldn't blast them with meteor swarm since that would've killed PC and Kaelyn who were "badly wounded" nearly all the time but not every enemy who would've then just casually removed lone wizard. And as transmutation specialist she didn't have any summonings (they were next to useless anyway, Kaelyn's planetar and my elder elementals were dismissed in a heartbeat).

 

Finally I managed to bring them down, mainly with maximized disintegrates (one of my favorite spells which was useless until Mask clerics ran out of blindness spells) & Isaac's greater missile storms by Safiya and careful Greater lightning storm/heal tactics by my PC (Actually he was once killed but Kaelyn's restoration took care of of it) but damn that was close.

 

Great battle

 

Vampiric feast definetly is must have spell. PC in middle of enemy swarm + vampiric + few AoE spells like greater lightning storm to finish them off = perfect win

Edited October 26, 2007 by Xard

[Tale]

Vampiric Feast was hideously overpowered. I don't remember anything standing up to it in the slightest.

You could one-shot boss encounters with it. It was awesome.

[Cantousent]

Vampiric Feast was hideously overpowered. I don't remember anything standing up to it in the slightest.

You could one-shot boss encounters with it. It was awesome.

 

The source of another controversial bug report on my part. Of course, I love the spell, so I'm glad they didn't nerf it, but it's a one kill in areas that should not have a one kill option. By the way, I refered to it as the "win button" if I recall correctly.

[Starwars]

Hardest part for me was exploring Myrkuls Vault earlier in the game. My party was Me (Bard), Safiya, Gann and Kaelyn. When I entered the room with the Lich King I pretty much got completely run over. Fun times. Didn't really have a overly strong meleer in that party. Playing the game with Okku, Barbarian One-of-Many or a melee character of your own I would guess, just makes the game a lot easier.

 

I was also slightly shocked when you encounter the Red Wizards + mega gnolls in the Veil Theatre after getting to Mulsantir. The opening was kinda soft on the combat-side so I was completely unprepared. It's nice that you can avoid that encounter if you have Intimidate though.

[Pop]

When I first went into The Death God's Vault, went into that hallway with just my PC and the rest of my party got instantly killed due to quivering palms delivered by a large number of vampire monks all designated as "impossible", I guessed that maybe I would have the chance to come back and clean house after I gained a level or four, and I was right. There's no imperative to go in at lower levels (although it was generally smart to steal the gold / summon the void spirits in the main chamber and collect essences)

[Tale]

That encounter is how I learned how overpowered Vampiric Feast was. You all know what it was like to encounter them as "Impossible." Well, Vampiric Feast finished them off.

[Spider]

Mass Heal actually took care of the Vampires on fairly low levels. So there's that anyway.

 

When was the Mask encounter? I'm not sure I remember it. I have vague recollections of meeting one group of some religious people, I just thought they belonged to someone else (like Myrkul). But maybe I just wasn't paying attention. (btw, wouldn't meteor swarm be kinda bad against a bunch of high level rogues? Evasion and all? I used that tactic frequently in the OC, a rogue engages the enemies while a mage throws fireballs into the fray. Meteor Swarms would serve a similar function no? It just sucks if you miss the reflex save...)

 

I never actually cast Vampiric Feast the entire game. I think I picked it on someone, just never really needed it. I think I only cast one Epic Spell and that was the improved Meteor Swarm that didn't allow any save of any sort. But I only really had one opportunity to cast it without it taking out most of my party as well, so it stopped at once.

[Xard]

 

Was there quest related to these vremyonni? I just happened to stick my nose where it didn't belong and since my intimidate skillz weren't convincing enough it ended up in bloody mess.

[jaguars4ever]

Vampiric Feast > everything else.

 

But Mass Fowl is good for a laugh too.

[Cantousent]

You don't have to use intimidate there. I convinced them to stay on the straight and narrow.

[Pop]

 

Was there quest related to these vremyonni? I just happened to stick my nose where it didn't belong and since my intimidate skillz weren't convincing enough it ended up in bloody mess.

You're supposed to apologize for barging in, lore your way into letting them know that you know that they're vremyonni, and then pass a series of diplomacy checks to get them to return to their families (they're working for an evil durthan witch) and you get good points and some xp.

[Cantousent]

I never actually cast Vampiric Feast the entire game. I think I picked it on someone, just never really needed it. I think I only cast one Epic Spell and that was the improved Meteor Swarm that didn't allow any save of any sort. But I only really had one opportunity to cast it without it taking out most of my party as well, so it stopped at once.

That's funny. I used epic spells a lot during the game. Then again, I'm sure your uber character/party would kick sand in the face of my pathetic party. :Cant's tongue in cheek grin icon:

 

Seriously, though, Vampiric Feast is broken. For folks who aren't jonsin for bragging rights, the spells is a win button for a lot of fights. It takes care of anything from Okku to Rammaq. If you want, you can have four Vampiric feasts to use before the end of Chapter 2. Even if you put the game on the hardest of the hardcore, you can win a lot of battles with the exact same spell.

 

Yes, if you're completely awesome, you can beat the game with tremendous ease, but even if you don't have the best build in the world, or a character you've imported with great gear, you'll still have that that win button flashing to the side during every battle.

[taks]

Then again, I'm sure your uber character/party would kick sand in the face

now why would anyone want to kick sand in the face. he's a nice enough guy.

 

taks

[Tale]

I wouldn't mind kicking Sand in the face. Which one are we talking about? The one from NWN2 or the one on these forums? Actually, it doesn't matter.