The Lem Challenge.

[Bullwinkle]

Background: at this point, I've soloed all the characters through the whole game on Normal, except for Ezren and Seoni. Obviously, that's easier than Legendary, but for what it's worth:

 

Seelah is, by far, the easiest character to solo. She does almost everything reasonably well, and nothing particularly poorly, which is far more important for solo play than having a character who does one or two things really well but the others are a bust. She's so good that not only did I solo her through Legendary with relative ease, she beat Karzoug on Legendary with a hand size of 4.

 

All the rest were quite decent at soloing, including Lem. Running a dual-Cure setup was more valuable, I think, then the single-Cure swap most people advocate. (Actually, I found that broadly true: two Cures in the deck make a character not only nearly invincible, but fearless.) Surprisingly, I found Sajan to be the hardest of the ones I've played. I'm not sure if it was bad choices or just bad rolls, but I lost scenarios with him more often than anyone else. But I suspect the real hardest characters will be one of the spellcasters, who both have massive strengths but definite weaknesses that are magnified in solo play, and who will additionally have a heck of a time beating the Attack-immune monsters later in the game, particularly on Legendary.

[macurvello]

Now you made me want to try woth one of those two on Legendary =P

[DrinkFromTheCup]

Pffff.

Ezren with Horsechopper and weapon check boosting spells and flasks.

No problems with Attack immune monsters, however, lack of Blessings is infuriating...

[macurvello]

So... I got my ass kicked in 1.4 and 1.5 haha. I acknowledge the difficulty now XD

So, I'm building my Lem with DEX instead of CHA. Is that a bad idea? I figured relying on my weapon would be more stable than relying on having attack spells in my hand...

[Longshot11]

So, I'm building my Lem with DEX instead of CHA. Is that a bad idea?

No, you got the right idea, actually.  Due to his ability to swap from discard, Lem is often better off NOT recharging his spells anyway. Outside of combat, Charisma is useful for closing a couple of locations (but your Diplomacy bonus makes that pretty much guaranteed) and getting Allies (which are not crucial as in solo you don't need extra explores); Dexterity on the other hand will save your skin with a bunch of barriers.

 

Also, Lem would have a hard time beating some monsters' spell resistance - including Karzoug's; and having two combat spells for two-check monsters is a problem. Finally, Karzoug's statue will probably mess you up in solo if you've betting on Arcane.

[macurvello]

 

So, I'm building my Lem with DEX instead of CHA. Is that a bad idea?

No, you got the right idea, actually.  Due to his ability to swap from discard, Lem is often better off NOT recharging his spells anyway. Outside of combat, Charisma is useful for closing a couple of locations (but your Diplomacy bonus makes that pretty much guaranteed) and getting Allies (which are not crucial as in solo you don't need extra explores); Dexterity on the other hand will save your skin with a bunch of barriers.

 

Also, Lem would have a hard time beating some monsters' spell resistance - including Karzoug's; and having two combat spells for two-check monsters is a problem. Finally, Karzoug's statue will probably mess you up in solo if you've betting on Arcane.

 

Well, as it turns out, Lem can only build his Dex up to +3...

I've just finished scenario 4.1 and my charisma is already +1, so I don't think that will be an issue anymore haha.

 

Anyway, I've been trying someone's suggestion of using two Cure spells and that has been working out pretty well, I don't have to swap at the beginning of the turn so that gives me more opportunities to use combat spells.

 

I've also put my card feats into Spells and items but I've wondered if an extra weapon would be nice. If I have to discard one due to damage or some other reason, I can have a backup which I can potentially swap for the better one in my discard. The problem is there are so many good items... I'm not sure if sacrificing an extra item slot for this is worth it.

Edited April 21, 2017 by macurvello

[HungryShark6666]

I'm curious, has anyone managed to do this and beat the great runelord Karzoug with Lem solo on Legendary?

It would require a completely thought out deck to try and avoid Karzoug until the end, though I fear that the burying would be too fatal for Lem.

If anyone completed that, he/she/it should really deserve a "Lem champion" title.

[macurvello]

I'm curious, has anyone managed to do this and beat the great runelord Karzoug with Lem solo on Legendary?

It would require a completely thought out deck to try and avoid Karzoug until the end, though I fear that the burying would be too fatal for Lem.

If anyone completed that, he/she/it should really deserve a "Lem champion" title.

Challenge accepted. I'm in adventure 5 currently and progressing.

Avoiding Karzoug should be ok with augury, but burying a card every turn should be rough, yes.

[Hannibal_PJV]

So you need explore speed. Enough healing and a lot of extra explore by discard or via a recharge spell aka haste. You have to burn the deck before the bury burn you.

[Longshot11]

I'm curious, has anyone managed to do this and beat the great runelord Karzoug with Lem solo on Legendary?

It would require a completely thought out deck to try and avoid Karzoug until the end, though I fear that the burying would be too fatal for Lem.

If anyone completed that, he/she/it should really deserve a "Lem champion" title.

Actually, 6-5 on Legendary doesn't require any more specific deck composition than on Normal. The only difference is you get one additional henchman, and that's a breeze. There are many other scenarios that get a ridiculous push in difficulty on Legendary (*cough*5-4*cough*), but Karzough himself is not one of them.

 

That said, I defeated Karzoug with solo Lem on Normal, (and as I said - one additional henchman doesn't change anything) so this is my advice:

 

First, you need to have several bases covered (and this goes not only for the rather unchallenging 6-5, but even more so for the other more difficult scenarios):

 

- Combat: Deathbane Crossbow +1. If you got Weapon profficiency, you can get a better weapon, but I opted for Light Armors. At any rate - 1 weapon feat is recommended, as you can always chose to start with your best (albeit single) weapon

- Damage Prevention: Steel Ibis Lamellar. Not only you laugh in the face of KArzoug/Blue Dragon/Warden of Runes BYA damage, but you can also recharge it for an extra 1d6 to you Dexterity (combat) check. I also carried a Sihedron Medallion, but if you happen across any of the better Protection Rings - go for them.

- Combat Boosters: Blizzard and Corrozive Storm spells - they add 2d6 to your combats for a whole turn, and you don't get any drawback when you're solo. Also, flasks of Storm/Firestorm, for 3d6 each.

- Villain Setup: I cannot stress enough the importance of this in solo play. Basically, you want to know *exactly* where the villain is each time, so you can close the other locations, and then manipulate into your Perfect Hand for the final showdown. Any evade/scout capabilities are welcome, but  since Karzoug may not be evaded - I carried the Medusa Mask all the way from AD2 for the express purpose of setting Karzoug up; he then becomes  the top card of the deck, and it's only a matter of Augury/Scrying to put him on bottom. Brodert Quink and Magic Spyglass are also good for bottom-decking Karzoug, while the Revelation Quill pretty much solves your game right there.

 

The Perfect Hand

So, there is an erroneous view that you should somehow speed through 6-5, so as to minimize buried cards. This cannot be farther from the truth. In this scenario -as well as in most other- you couldn't care less how many cards you discard or bury - *as long as you have the cards you NEED*! In solo, where you have no buddies to help you out, it will all come down to one or two checks of YOU VS. VILLAIN. So once you've done your Villain Setup, you begin the sometimes slow, but ultimately crucial process of taking "empty" turns, discarding cards and resetting your hand, going down to 0 cards in you deck if need be, as long as you end up with what I've taken to calling "The Perfect Hand" - the sum total of the most useful cards your current deck allows for your encounter with the villain.

 

So, assuming you've bottom-decked Karzoug, and you've cleaned out all the other trash, your final task is to setup your Perfect Hand, which for my solo Lem looked thusly:

- Card 1: whatever. This is the card you'll bury at the start of your turn

- Card 2: Deathbane Crossbow. Your combat card.

- Card 3: Steel Ibis Lamellar (or any other single card that will soak up all of Karzoug's BYA Constitution check damage)

- Card 4: Flask of Storm/Firestorm (displayed before the encounter for 3d6)

- Card 5: Flask of Storm/Firestorm (displayed before the encounter for 3d6)

- Card 6: Corrosive Storm/Blizzard spell (displayed before the encounter for 2d6; app players are at advantage here, as the do not need to suffer the boardgame's Arcane/Divine check to play Attack spells))

- Card 7: Corrosive Storm/Blizzard spell (displayed before the encounter for 2d6; app players are at advantage here, as they can cast Blizzard/Corrosive Storm out of encounter, so they're not limited by the "one card per type per check" rule)

 

So, for the first check, I have:

d8 +3 (Dex) +d8+1 (Deathbane) + 10d6   which gives a minimum of 16 and an average of 48 against a target of 30

for the second check, you have the same dice, but you also recharge the Deathbane for Lem's Solo Performance, for d4+3, and possibly also recharge the Steel Ibis for its power, for another d6 - so, a minimum of 21 and an average of 57 against a target of 40.

From here on, you're only left to prey to the Gods for a good roll.

 

Bottomline, Karzoug in the app feels a bit like a cheat mode compared to the boardgame, where you're not only not allowed to grind for cards, but you also don't have access to Steel Ibis and the Flasks. (ofc, I'm somewhat kidding about "cheat mode", as the app actually feels *more fair* towards solo casters than the board game).