Intro

I just finished Siege of Dragonspear. I thought that before delving into BG2 and ToB I would take a break through The Black Pits: Gladiators of Thay.

I never played it before, but my recent playthrough of the first installment of The Black Pits was quite enjoyable. It's a very scripted way of discovering new classes, spells and foes. Also, by playing solo, it made me finish Dragonspear (and thus, start BG2) with the XP I should have had at the end of BG2. So playing the Black Pits should give me a nice preview of the kind of level I will get will playing through BG2.

I'll start with a clone of Maleek, the Fighter/Mage/Thief I'm playing in my main playthrough. If it works, it will give me a nice way of testing/learning new tactics. I got pretty lucky with a 85 roll.

I don't really know what weapons will be available. I take shortbow because it's usually faster than a long bow, and the munitions are important, not the bow itself. I'm going with Two-Weapon Style because it allow me to wear one more item that can have passive buffs, and two pips is enough to reduce the THAC0 penalty in the first hand to zero. Three pips would set it to -2 to the offhand instead of -4 but I don't really care about hitting with the offhand.

Now for the last two pips... I don't know what weapons will be available. Longsword is usually a good pick. I'm keen on daggers usually, or maybe Flail, if the Flail of Ages is available. Quick google check and yes, it's available. I'm gonna try that then.

I set my thieving skills to be able to hide, even if I'm unsure it could work. Depend if the arena is large enough. I put the rest in Set Traps, I want to try traps for this run. I didn't put anything in pickpocket or lock picking as I don't expect it to be possible. And if it is, I'll use potions.

And, here we go...

And it all started with an ambush.

Into the pits

And here is our new playground. I'm level 8/9/10 currently. Let's explore this place. First thing I see is that I can't cast spells here.

Oh, my jailor is helped by a Planetaar. That makes things harder. This will be some high level stuff here.

So, I start with 15000 gp, and a few merchants. Let's have a look.

Some nice gear to boost the elemental resistance.

Some nice Flail/Morningstar for me. I'll have to check if the Wyvern's Tail does a dot damage or one-time. But the "fall asleep" one could be useful.

Some nice daggers. Too bad I'm not proficient in it this time.

It's only a +1, but 3 shots/round is good.

They're selling all the arrows I need. But they only have one stack of Dispelling and Detonation. Not sure the duplicate stack trick would work. I would need them to have at least two. I'll have to see if I can get some more before buying them.

Some very interesting spells here. I'm sure there are great things to do with a double (Mislead, Project Image or Simulacrum) and some of the very high level scrolls.

Oh, I know them. They were under Dragonspear castle.

At least this one is in infinite supply.

I'll have to find another way to cast speed than drinking this.

Oh great. Fire resistance is infinite as well. And 5 of the other one should allow me to get through tough fights.

Infinite Absorption, great against Golems. Infinite Master Thievery, I'll go for some pickpocket/lockpicking later. 15 Invis, that' good enough as well as 10 Clarity, won't need that much.

Oh and infinite fire damage? Ok, I see where this is going.

I'll have to see if it's the buggy one with lots of charges or not.

No boots of speed, though.

Could be useful instead of drinking potions.

This is good. The damage usually bypass magic resistance.

Some stuff that I could revisit once I have UAI.

And one of each. This will get very expensive, but I think it's worth it.

Oh wait, looks like I can't use my quick-slot item here.

Oh, I can in the dorms, so that's where I buff. I'll check what's inside later, for now I'm gonna try to open has many locks as I can.

Oh shit, when I came here I got dispelled. The zones outside of the form seem to not allow casting and dispel everything. This is gonna be tricky.

So I can buff and do stuff in the dorms but as soon as I get out, I got debuffed. This will make exploration very hard.

First Fight

And I'm onto my first fight. I couldn't find a way to buff before the fight, so I'm going there pretty naked. Also, the whole area is discovered, there is no fog of war as far as I can see, so no way to hide in shadows. Being a thief is then not that useful, if not for the backstabs but I'll need potions or spells to pull that trick.

Anyway, I used most of my gold buying a potion of explosion and a wand of lightning, I should be able to kill those orcs.

Killed most of them with the explosion but now they are coming my way and I don't have any boots of speed, so the kiting is slow.

I'm casting Mirror Image to buy me some time, but next fight, I'll surely memorize haste, or buy a potion of haste.

Got some gold and XP.

I read that in order to gain loot from winning battles, I have to ask for it at the start of the battle. The odds are changed based on how I talk to the crowd. As I don't want to replay battle more often than necessary, I'm checking in the wiki to see what I would earn here. Nothing very interesting for me, so I'm going to the next battle.

I bought some scrolls to learn more spells, a Potion of Genius, and the Tuigan Bow. I moved back to my bedroom to drink the potion, and learn the spells.

Even the Genius effect of the potion is disabled when I leave the dorm. There really seem to have no way to pre-buff for a fight. What I'll do is cast a small sequencer with Shield and Mirror Image. At least I can cast that at the start of the fight.

Second Fight: Minotaur

I just realized I can have a sneak peek at the next encounter by looking at what's in this area. I wish I could pre-debuff them somehow.

My adversaries tried to kill Dennaton. Didn't work.

But then, I died against the other party. And now I have to redo it. Custcene and all. This is really long, and I'm not even well prepared, so I might die as well. I started with casting my spell sequencer on myself, then haste, but haste got interrupted by their arrows. Maybe I should have cast Protection from Normal weapon, I don't know what they're using.

This time I'll cast Fireballs first, then Haste. Fireball worked, kinda, but I would need more. I'll need a wand, not potions. I couldn't caste Haste as it got interrupted. Managed to cast my sequencer, but their thief rapidly dispelled the mirror image. And as I don't have any armor, they are killing me quickly. I don't have many things I could do, so I might have to farm the first battle a few times to get more gold.

So I re-did the first battle. Fireball, Mirror Image + Haste, and killing them with arrows.

Oh wait. I'm only getting 500 gold this time. Shit. This is going to be very hard indeed. This might actually not even be worth it if I have to buy a potion of fireball each time.

Wait what, I'm just now realizing my stats are not at all what I rolled initially and put as a screen above. What happened? Maybe I rerolled by mistake and accepted the wrong stats? Shit. No wonder I'm not learning any spells, my Int is shitty, my Dex is bad and my Constitution is abysmal.

I think I'll have to restart...

Reroll as a Blade

This time I'm rerolling a Blade. I thought that if I'm gonna play as a Fighter/Thief/Mage I might as well try the Blade so I have Offensive and Defense Spins, as well as the ability to use Blade stuff.

Ok, this time I double checked and I correctly got through the creation process with the right stats. Now I better know how things are working here and I'll have to be very conservative in my money spending.

I will play this run in a YOLO manner, meaning I'll need to get through the current fight in any way possible. If it means buying the one scroll that I need, I'll do it, even if it means not having access to this scroll later in the adventure.

From what I gathered from my small playthrough, the first battles will be the hardest because I won't have much stuff, and when you're playing solo, stuff is really important.

Orcs

I bought the wand of Lightning Bolts, a Potion of Explosion, and two Wakisashis. I cast haste at the start of the fight, then explosion on the group. Finished the last two with MMM. Haste was the MVP, allowing me to kite the enemies.

Rebel Group

This time I bought the Wand of Paralyzation, and one other potion of Explosion. I expect to spam Paralyze on them and put them out of the fight that way. I hope it will work because the custscene at the start of the fight is extremely long.

Ok that didn't work at all. They turned invisible. I tried to cast Web, but their archers hit me with poison arrows, preventing me from casting. I tried to paralyze them, managed to paralyze two, but the rest killed me.

I'll try to find an item with Poison Protection and try again. There is no such item, as far as I can tell. No such potion and no such scroll. I'll try a protection from normal missile and see if it works any better. I put Invisibility and Mirror Image in a Spell Sequencer to try at the first of the fight. I also bought a Scroll of Web to try to block them. The issue is that I need to cast too many spells (defense and offense) in a short window of time, so I have to learn the best order: Invisibility, Haste, Protection from Missiles, Web... Either all offense or all defense...

I started with Mirror Image + Invisibility in a sequencer. Allowed me to move around, and wait for the thieves to go back to being visible. I then chained cast Web through the scroll, and managed to do it unscathed because my mirror images where getting all the damage. Then, Haste on myself because you never know, and then potions of Explosions into their faces. This didn't kill them, then two minotaurs managed to get through the web and I had to run. They drank potions, so I focused on the archers still held in the web, and I managed to kill one with MMM. But I then ran out of MMM, so I started to chain cast Paralyze to kill them in melee once the web is finishing. Are the minotaurs immune to stun or what ? I've been sending them Paralyze rays over and over again, they changed color (which usually means they're affected), but kept coming at me. In the end I died to their blows.

Next time I might buy a bow, to not rely only on MMM and I need to find a way to get those Minotaurs out of my way. Other humans seems to stay paralyzed, but the minotaurs were not. Or maybe I use more potions of explosions? Anyway, this was the best run on this fight I ever did, I'm sure I'll figure a way.

So, I tried another time and got killed pretty quickly. What I learned is that when I chain cast Web as a scroll, it fires it, not on the targets, but at the point the target was at when I clicked it. So once the first spell is cast, and the target moved, the second scroll will still be cast where I initially clicked. This resulted in my demise as they closed on melee on me and I was still casting spells way far from them.

For my next try I wanted to test something. I bought a scroll of Mordenkainen Sword, hoping to flood them with unkillable swords. This didn't work as planned, as casting the scrolls took too much time and I only had time to cast two sword before having to run. Somehow I was poisoned but it seemed like Mirror Image did absorb the poison damage for me. I then tried to kill them with MMM, but the swords dispelled before I could kill them. What I learned is that I need to find a way to nuke them all at once when they're immobilized. I might try something with Web to stop them, turning myself into a spider to move freely and nuke them with Fire potions.

This time I did a few spell tests in the bunk area. Apparently, I won't break Invisibility as long as I cast spells or potions that don't require a target. So I should be able to cast MMM, or drink a potion of Defense, but Haste or a Potion of Explosion will break invi. I also wanted to be clever and pre-cast a Polymorph Self spell on myself to turn into a spider, but even if the spell wasn't dispelled by the no-magic zone of the basement, I no longer had it once in the fight itself. I shouldn't have cast it beforehand, and should have waited to be invisible in the arena. Well, I stock on various potions, so we'll see how it goes this time.

So I start with my sequencer of Invisibility + Mirror Image. Now is time to buff. MMM, Stoneskin and Globe of Invulnerability. Then, should I start with haste, or try to put them in webs? What I did is try the Harp of Discord that is supposedly casting Confusion in a radius around me. I wanted to see if it would break invisibility. I used it with the Wand of Ligtning and it did break Invis. I wonder if it's because of the targeting trick of the wand, or if it's inherent to the Harp. I'll have to test again.

I have two minotaurs attacking me, but I also managed to confuse a thief and an archer. But minotaurs hit very very hard, I'm unsure how I'll defeat them. I casted Haste, thanks to my Images blocking attacks, then attempted to chain cast web. I managed to block most of them. Because I'm in a globe, I'm not affected by web, allowing me to stay inside and have all the others blocked. I MMM an archers, and finished it with an Offensive Spin. I also killed a Minotaur with the rest of the Offensive Spin. I went out of the web while Nearly Dead, and I finished him. But now the web is over and I still have one minotaur and at least two other guys. And I'm no longer hasted.

I sent Potions of Explosion into the fray. Killed one, almost killed the other two and myself. I'm taking my potion of Invisibility to get to a better position. I'm pretty low on resources, this is getting harder. Possible, but harder. They are apparently out of potions, so I can take some time to buff: Mirror Image.

I'll attempt to cast web into the minotaur and the other guy, leaving me enough time to finish the archer, and then I'll blast the group with fire. Well, no exactly. The Minotaur didn't get caught in the web, so I had to finish him with MMM and Magic Missiles.

Now it's just me and one last guy. MMM should be enough. Well, it didn't. So just to be sure, I Paralyzed him and will finish him in melee. I'm out of MMM and Magic Missiles and forgot to buy a bow, so I really have to wait for the web to finish, and then finish him in melee. In the meantime, I did some experiment, and I managed to use the Harp of Discord on him, even from far away, by using it through the Wand of Lightning. That's interesting. This allows me to use an item that was proximity only, at range. But it will still break Invisibility. In the end, I didn't even waited for the Web to finish and went with Offensive Spin to kill him. Won 12k gp.

What I learned here is that Minor Globe of Invulenerability (MGI) and Web is a great combo. Using the Harp of Discord at range is also a great way to control a crowd, maybe better than Paralyze because they might attack each other. Would be lovely to cast on spell casters.

Lizardmen

New arena. This time I learned Sunfire and Mislead. I'm going to try the same tactic as before: Sequencer to go invisible at the start of the game, then buff, then nuke and/or web. I want to try if I can cast sunfire while staying invisible. I also want to test the Mislead.

I tried Mislead, it created a double of myself, but that cannot cast spells, nor use items. This isn't very useful, unless I somehow manage to cast Invisibility on it, so maybe that means I will be invisible forever. Well, I tried to cast Invis on it, but it died too quickly... Well, too bad. And it also seemed to have broken MY invisibility (maybe because I started casting when he died.) Well... now I'm out of invisibility spells, so I guess I'll just have to try to nuke with Sunfire.

Whoo. Casting Sunfire takes a long time. The Lizards managed to kill all my Mirror Images, but it did kill them. Also, I casted Sunfire centered on myself, I wonder what happens if I cast it on another target.

Hmm, the fight did not stop. I guess their shaman/leader is still around, invisible.

He finally reappeared and cast a swarm on bug on me. Because I'm hasted, I managed to flee from it and cast Confusion on him. I'm firing MMM at him while dodging the swarm. And he's dead, without the swarm hitting me. Yeah \o/, 13k more gold.

What I learned this time is that Mislead is hard to use in a fight like this. I can't use it to cast consumables, I'll need Project Image for that. I couldn't use it to stay invisible because it died too quickly. Maybe when I'll have better stuff.

It also confirms that the Harp of Discord is very useful. Confused enemies are fun. My tests regarding Sunfire are not finished, I still need to check what happens if I target monsters, and if it breaks Invisibility, with or without the wand. But the good news is that I didn't use any consumable in that fight.

Umber Hulks

I only bought a Healing Potion and one of Clarity.

They can't see Invisibility, so as usual, I buff at the start of the game. I chained cast Sunfire on them. By targeting them, the fire went to them, but it didn't break my Invisibility. That's almost cheating! I also wasn't affected by the explosion. The way I understand it is that the spell is scripted to be cast centered on myself, and making me immune to it. But by using the Wand of Lightning trick, I change the target, but I'm still immune to it. What I don't understand is why it didn't work for the Harp of Discord. Why did the Harp Break Invisibility when used with the Wand?

Hmm, no I recast it and it isn't what happened. No matter what I target, the Sunfire is always centered on myself. Well, I did kill a few of them still, but as they keep moving I couldn't always have them all in the radius.

I finished by casting Web, being immune to it because of the MGI, I killed the melee one with Magic Missiles, and the range ones with MMM. The last one managed to hit me pretty hard, but I finished it with an Offensive Spin.

I feel like I have a working routine. Sequencer to quickly cast Invisibility at the start of the fight and one buff (Mirror Image), then buff mainly with MGI, MMM and Stoneskin. Sunfire while stealthing to diminish their ranks. Then web and finishing them off.

Drows

This might be tricky. Drows are known for their Magic Resistance, and most of what I do is magic. So I bought a potion of magic resistance myself, hoping to also turn resistant to magic and not at any disadvantage on that front.

OK. True Sight. All my Invisibility is dispelled. I'm in deep trouble. I managed to cast MGI. But their arrows have stunned me. There's nothing I can do. I need to find a way to protect myself from the Invisibility purge.

So I bought Contingency and Spell Immunity and configured it so whenever I see an enemy, I cast Spell Immunity: Divination on myself. This, coupled with the Invisibility I'll cast at the start of the fight should allow me to stay invisible and buff myself. I also bought a Protection from Magic Weapon, to try to resist their hits. I'm going to try that. This whole fight will be some trial and error.

My spell Sequencer worked, but my Contingency didn't. Thankfully, I managed to cast Spell Immunity: Divination myself. Ah, the Contingency finally kicked in, but was too late. So for future fights, I can keep the Contingency idea, but not with something that needs to be cast quickly at the start of the fight because there is some time before it is triggered.

For now, I'm staying hidden, waiting for them to use up their spells. Spell Immunity will work 1 round / level, and I'm level 21. That should be plenty of time. I don't want to buff too much while Invisible, so it won't run out when I turn visible.

Fuck, I forgot to buy the Magic Protection potion...

I tried Sunfire on them, but they seem totally immune because of their Magic Resistance. I guess I'll have to kill them on melee. But for that I need to be totally immune to their magic (through the potion) and to their hits (maybe through protection from magic weapon, I'll have to try)

So I turned into a Mustard Jelly with PFMW and tried to cast Harp of Discord. Surprisingly, even with their Magic Resistance, I managed to get one of them.

PFMW works. Drows can't hit me. I'm still waiting a bit for the mage, see what he's doing, and then I'll turn into a killing machine. I confused another one, let's get closer to the mage. Drows are attacking themselves, great!

I'm back into human form, but I still have those resistances, not sure why, but that's great. What isn't is that they managed to hurt me, and remove all my mirror images. And stun me, so there is nothing I can do. Maybe I should have a Contingency to cast Invisibility on myself when stunned.

For this next try, I'm going full defense. I'll turn Invisible and protect myself from Divination at the start of the fight. I'll also protect from Dispel. I'll pump my MR above 100% and protect myself from magic weapons. Then I'll try to dominate them (I bought the Captive Audience harp). If dominate doesn't work, I'll just Offensive Spin them, maybe with some Fireshields.

Ok, so they are specifically immune to Domination. I'll try Offensive Spin, then. Well, my THACO is not enough to hit them, it has no visible effect, shit. Maybe I need Tenser in addition to that, or better stuff? I managed to confuse one, he's doing some damage to other drows, but my PFMW is off. Thankfully, it can be cast very quickly so I can up it again.

MMM works though, I can hit them. Even without offensive spin. Two of them are confused. I'm turning invisible. I'm out of PFMW. I hope the confused ones (including the caster) will start attacking each other. Doesn't seem to work that way, they just move erratically.

I cast two fire shields on myself; it did a lot of damage to them, so I guess I'll have to start this tactic again. Maybe just staying as a jelly with double shields and wait for them to come and get killed? Ideally I would need an active way of dealing them damage.

Mustard Jellies seems to be Immune to magic, so this makes the mage not a problem anymore. They also are immune to piercing, so the scouts are no more. But only 30% slashing, so I need another way of avoiding their attacks. Mirror Image and Stoneskin could work, with a great AC, it might work better than PFMW. Or I use PFMW and focus on killing the warriors. But for that I'll need a better THACO. Maybe gulping potions of power would help? Or buying a better sword?

I could try to redo the third fight enough time to get the Cloak of the Sewers. The fight is easy, and it will get me -1 AC and a free Mustard Jelly transform. This could also allow me to transform into a rat with 90% resistance to all physical damage, so I just need to find an item that adds +10% to piercing or slashing and I'm immune to damage.

I took a break and redid the Lizardmen batlle. I wasn't ready, spell-wise, so I did the fight with all the spells for the drow battle. Meaning: no sunfire. I decided to try and dominate them. Turns out, once I dominated all the monsters, I won the fight. That's very interesting to know. You don't have to kill them, charming them all seems to be enough.

I won a spear with immunity to charm and hold. That's okayish, I'll keep it.

I redid the fight a few times. I managed to hit the Lizards with MMM with shitty rolls. Even with Offensive Spin, the combat log was displaying my to hit bonus as +1 (when it should have been much higher because of MMM and OS), but even with a shitty roll of 2 (for a grand total of 3), I was still hitting them. Either offensive spin makes hitting monsters easier, or MMM always hit, or the bonus overflowed.

This is weird because this time I'm attacking only with MMM and I have +9 to hit. I still have 5 attacks per round with MMM, no need for OS.

This time I have +7. I really don't get the calculation.

Finally got that baby. This will slightly improve my AC and also allow for easier polymorph.

This time against the drows, with MMM I have only +4. I really don't get this.

I used OS and now I have +7... What the hell? OS is supposed to give +4, so I should have been +8. When hitting someone in melee I actually have -4.

Ok great, this is working. I used a full stack of MMM on a range scout, and during that time one of the warriors killed himself trying to hit me while I was protected with my shields. Hmm, when they die, they transform into small spiders.

Ok, two warriors down and two scouts down. The army of spiders is slowly getting killed by my shield. Now I have a priest and a mage. Considering that I am immune to magic, it should be doable.

I wonder where the mage is.

He finally appeared. I removed his Mirror Image with one Magic Missile. He is immune to my +1 arrows. Also immune to MMM.

His Fireshield finally wore off, I could hit him with MMM. He turned invisible and started to rebuff again.

This is pretty boring fight. He turned invisible and won't come back. I guess I'll need some Glitterdust for next time. He finally got visible again, I killed him with MMM, he turned into 3 spiders that managed to poison me. Thankfully I had one last Potion of Invisibility. So I could wait for the Poison to end, and rebuff.

Ah shit, I forgot the priestess. She's back. I managed to interrupt her casting. I'm going to go on melee with her and Offensive Spin her. I'll really need to buy a weapon that does poison damage, it's perfect to prevent enemies from casting spells.

She's out of spells, she's just running around and I'm stupidly trying to follow her to hit her.

Finally, everybody is dead. That was a great fight, but not one I want to redo

Oh, and I even won this. This is really great armor for me.

Tier 2

Mercants stalls have been upgraded.

This will be an undead killer. If I ever have to fight undeads, I'll buy this for the Sunray spell.

A shortbow firing +3 arrows

This. Best item ever. I'm buying that.

Immunity to disease. Good to know.

This will give me +1 Constitution, putting me at 19, and thus enabling natural regeneration. Not mind blowing, but nice to have.

This will improve THACO and damage.

Oh, even better than the boots, as it won't make be remove my Boots of Speed.

It's nice but will only absorb spells up to level 4. I spells doing much better effects than that.

Same price as the Sandthief Ring, but this one cast Improved Invisibility and can also summon an Air Elemental (not a big deal though).

Vampires

I did a trial run, not knowing what to expect and I did pretty good. Invisibility + Spell Immunity: Divination (let's call it I+SID for short) allowed me to buff with Stoneskin, MMM, double Fireshield (2FS). I cast some Sunfire to thin their ranks but it was hard to correctly aim as they kept moving. PMW allowed me to be immune to their level drain and I finished them with MMM and paralyzing them.

But one of them managed to hit me with a level drain, and it didn't went off after the fight. I searched the barracks for a priest, but couldn't find one, nor one that would sell Restoration Scrolls. So I reloaded the savegame and tried again.

Actually I tried again, twice, and got destroyed by them. They charmed me quickly and they killed me. I guess I somehow had managed to kill the spellcast with my Sunfires in my first attempt but couldn't replicate it this time. I would need either a Potion of Clarity or a way to protect myself from their spells. Anyway, I searched the place a bit more and finally found priests of Tempus that could cast Restoration on myself, so I'll stay with this savegame after all.

Githyankis

I'll try my classical routine. 4 warriors, I should be able to kill them with Sunfire, and if not, with 2FS. Anti-Paladin I don't know what to expect, and Gish is a Warrior-Mage, something I should kill first.

Ok, I'm invisible in the center. Almost fully buffed. Just casting PMW and I'm ready to start the show. I started with the Captive Audience. I managed to Charm two warriors. I'm sending them toward other warriors, and I'll now try to kill the Gish and Anti-Paladin.

What. It worked well for a bit, I killed one warrior with my own, and the other got killed by them. Then I think I got hit by a disintegrate spell and died. I really need a buff to protect myself from spells.

Oh, also I forgot, but I leveled up and managed to get Use Any Item, as a High Level Ability. This means that I can now wear helmets and shields. So I bought a shield that gave me -4 to AC (so I'm at -7 with only an armor and shield) and also gives me immunity to charm, hold, domination and fear. I also slept so I have Spell Deflection.

So I tried again, this time with Spell Deflection in addition to the other buffs. I opened with Captive Audience on the warriors and the Anti-Paladin. I got two warriors. I had them use Kai and attack the Gish, while I cast Web on the Anti-Paladin.

I got some of my protections dispelled. Not sure which one yet. Judging by the spell effect I still have either SID or Spell Deflection. MGI is still here, but PMW is gone, shit. I need to recast this, and I guess I'll also have to protection myself from Dispell next time.

The good news is that all the Gith seems to ignore me and go attacking their "friends". They form a nice cluster that I will Sunfire right away.

Whoo. I killed most of them, only the Anti-Paladin is up, but looking rough. I'll protect myself from his weapon and finish him.

After that I leveled up, but there is no HLA that seems really interesting for the Black Pits. I took the Time Stop trap, hoping that I could use it, but no sure.

Sahuagin Prince

I'm not buying any new stuff, I'll keep battling the monsters until I hit a roadblock. Some stuff is interesting, but maybe I'll get even better gear if I move to the next Tier, so I'll just keep my money for now.

The water weird don't move, so I'll just blast them with Sunfire. I was lucky and the prince got into the radius, but they seem to resist well.

I'm not sure what is their resistance percentage. Second line would suggest 50%, but the others contradict this.

Second sunfire, killed the Prince and two Weirds. I finished one, dominated the other and attacked the last one with MMM. Good news is that they cannot reach me if I'm far, bad news is that their resistance makes killing them very long. So I went with Magic Missiles. They are immune to Arrows of Biting, and +2 arrows only do ~1 damage.

Elementals

I leveled up and picked Spiked Trap and Magic Flute. This is an item I can invoke that allows me to cast up to 3 Delayed Fireballs. As I'm playing the same areas over and over again, I wanted to try to see if I could trap the spawning area of the monsters during fight n so it explodes in fight n+1.

I kinda found my rhythm here. First fights were hard, but now I'm cruising through it, and not even needing to buy resources.

So, I sorcerer and some invocations. I'll try the classic tactic, but if it does not work, I'll come back with spells that directly dispel all invocations and we'll see.

Ok, so he's fucking ready. I might just have to wait for all his protections to die off, patiently waiting in shadow.

This could quickly become a messy fight if you're not prepared. Confusion, hasted invocations, crazy sorcerer. I'll really just wait.

Well, I waited so long that my SID disappeared. I recast it, and started buffing myself. I hope he won't dispel everything...

Oh ok. He can cast Time Stop. And I'm stunned. Shit, I thought I was immune to that. I'm supposed to have a Contingency that casts Invisibility when I'm stunned, we'll see if it works. It did. While I'm stunned, all my spells are losing their power. They all disappear, one by one. And I'm still stunned.

Ah fuck. When I got out of Invisibility, I automatically attacked Mardii because it was the action I was doing before the Stun/Contingency. But this made me go out of stealth. So I guess I'll have to re-cast Invis.

Ok I managed to do that, and I realized he has a missile protection that fires missiles back, so I cannot kill him with MMM.

And he's Time Stopping again. But I'm Invisible, so he's just moving around, doing nothing. Haha, what a waste of a spell.

I tried the Captive Audience and got 3 elementals out of 4. Let's send them on Mardii and see how he fares.

The fucker silenced me. Well, this is a great fight, he's very good, I'm learning great spells.

Fuck it. He Mazed me.

Ok I either need a way to better protect myself from his spells, or just kill him quickly.

Let's try again. This time I'm focusing all my efforts on him, and will go fight him on melee. I managed to kill one Earth Elemental and one Water Elemental, but he quickly invoked two more of each kind. Maybe I should just leave the Elementals alone.

He still has some Spell Deflection up. The moment it's over, I'll silence him.

So yeah, I can confirm. There were two perfectly aligned Elementals so I decided to nuke them, and now I have 4 of them. If I'll do this fight again, I'll definitely leave the summons alone until I killed the gnome.

Hmm, ok. This makes hitting him all the harder now.

This is insane. Whenever I kill one, two more are coming. Even dominating them is not a good idea. And the confusion fields keeps teleporting me to random places. I'm trying to paralyze them now.

There's no way I will survive that. I will try again. But I have no clue how I could kill the gnome. Maybe I need to focus on breaking his protections?

Oh come on! I tried to Silence him and the bastard has Magic Resistance. Ok, he's a very very good mage. I think the only way to kill him is melee, so that's what I'll try next. Paralyze the Elementals, and melee focus on the mage.

All Elementals seems to do Crushing Damage, so I could build enough protection from that so it's no problem.

I managed to pause the game exactly the moment I died.

...which makes me wonder. What would have happened if I could level up. Would leveling up, and gaining HP allowed me to survive?

Ok, next try. With that I should be Immune to all his spells, have -60AC against crushing, be resistant to fire (to protect myself from his Fireshield) and also protect from mind effects (just in case Magic Resistance is not enough). I also learned Tenser's Transformation and picked up a non-magical Wakizashi. This time, I'm going straight for the little gnome.

This should protect me from all the attacks. Here we go. The fucking gnome is running everywhere, I can't hit him. So I'll break invisibility by trying to Paralyze the goons.

So, crushing protection works. When I hit the gnome though, I roll a Critical Miss -_-

Ok, let's switch to regular Wakizashi then.

What? Why so low? I'm trying to turn into Tenser. But he keeps fucking running around. And now he's invisible. And Paralyzing the goons does not seem to work.

Out of options, I started sending LIghtning bolts, hoping to touch him. Oops, it touched Dennaton.

Hmm. It seems that Mardii's sphere is reflecting my lightning bolts, and thus hurting his own goons.

Oh, I hurt him enough with blind rays that he had to use a contingency and drink a potion? Well, I'm gonna keep sending random bolts then!

Hahaha, this is the craziest, stupidest, tactic I ever used. I was running around in the arena, dropping arrows, one by one on the floor, just so I could have a valid point to target with the wand. Then, when I saw that Mardii was close (because I could see the spell effects floating around him, but not him) I would hurl a Potion of Explosion, and he would get killed by it, even if I could not see him. Now I just need to finish the goons.

But first, I'm placing three Delayed Fireballs in the entrance. I want to see if they are still here next time I enter this arena.

Now I need to kill the monsters. Took a bit of time, but as they cannot hit me, I finally did it.

Demons & Devils

I didn't buy new things this time. I also realized that I am now capped at the max spell level. I can gain new spell slots, but never learn level 7, 8 or 9 spells. This is a bummer as there are some really good spells at level 7 or 8 (I'm not a fan of the level 9 spells. Some are really powerful like Time Stop, but maybe too powerful and not versatile enough. Wish is awesome, though, but I should be able to handle it with Project Image).

Anyway, I took a few different spells, and am heading to the next battle.

Hmm, so this is a large group of monsters this time. I bet most of them are immune to fire as well. We'll use the classical tactic, and adapt if needed.

Hmm, this didn't work out. One of them cast True Sight before I had time to cast SID. So I ran away, cast SID properly and THEN Invisibility. This time it worked.

Now that I'm invisible, they seem to be fighting among themselves. Great, I'll just wait to see who wins.

Hmm. I though I was protected from Divination spells. Apparently not enough. Oh shit, now they stunned me and killed me. Ok, next time I'll protect myself from Magical Weapons and find a way to be immune to stun.

This time I bought the Sensate Amulet that provides Protection from Evil. Not sure it will have any effect on the creatures, but we'll soon find out. I also took a potion of Invulnerability to enhance my Saving Throws, and a Potion of Clarity (but I'm unsure if it does protect from Stun or not).

Ah shit. I started with SID, but they cast Fear on me. And a salamander teleported next to me. Ok, so I need equipment that prevents fear now.

Good thing is that they are busy killing each other so maybe I can survive long enough to have the fear effect dispelled. Yep, it worked. I managed to cast Invisibility + Mirror Image, and drink my potions of Invulnerability while they are still fighting each other. I'll have to focus on the Marilith and kill her next.

Ok so it's confirmed. Spell Protection: Divination does not protect from the Marilith illusion dispelling. I tried running away to cast PFMW, but they interrupted me. I tried to cast Sunfire, and they killed me.

So now I know. I don't need to bother protecting from Divination. I need to bolster my saving throws, protection from magic weapons, focus on the marilith and THEN turn invisible and finish them off.

Ok, I'm protected from spells, mostly. I cast PFMW, but I wonder if I should protect myself from Dispel as well. I guess not.

I tried to cast Sunfire, but because of the Ice Shards and fogs I got interrupted. I might need a real globe of Invulnerability. I'm gonna try to paralyze them, see if they resist. They have magic resistance, shit.

Grumpf. They stunned me with Power Word. I think there is no save against that, so I'll need Immunity or a Spell Protection. My contingency worked, but got automatically dispelled. Maybe I should cast Otiluke Sphere on myself instead?

They did hurt me with their weapons. I'm not sure if that's because they are not magical, or because my PFMW was over. I might have to try Protection from Normal Weapons. Or maybe turn into a Mustard Jelly and just wait for them to fight each other?

I'm out of money, so I'm going to replay the first battles a few time. I'll improve my reputation this way and get a bit more coin.

Argh fuck. I did the first battle against orc, forgot to save and started the Demon battle again.

I started by turning into a Jelly. Cast Delayed Fireball on the monsters, but only the Gerudon (Ice Salamander) took damage. Not very useful as it's usually the first to die anyway. I sent some Lightning Bolts next and only the Erinyes took damage.

I then realized that my Magic Flute can cast Fear Protection and Globe of Invulnerability, which is quite nice to be honest. I cast the Fear protection, and then got attacked by the monsters. I'm going to try to dominate them, see if does anything.

The Marilith has a lot of attacks. Each hit seems to add some elemental damage (Ice, Fire, Magic, etc). As a Jelly I'm immune to some of them, but I still take the Slashing damages. The Glabrezu does crushing damage (is that the same as bludgeoning?)

They seem to have resisted my Dominate. And the marilith killed me.

Replaying battles for reputation

So I'm gonna take a break from the Marilith fight and replay the previous fights 3 times each, as to increase the chance to get a reward. And also to try ideas.

I cast Mislead and then used my sequencer on it, to turn it Invisible. It failed. I wonder if that's because the other spell in the sequencer was Mirror Image and it made the target invalid. I then cast a real Invisibility on Mislead, which allowed me to walk around freely. But the moment I cast a spell, my Mislead clone became visible, not I.

This time I put Protection from Evil and Invisibility in the sequencer and tried to cast it on my Mislead clone, but it still failed.

There is not much my Mislead clone can do. No quick slot items, no special ability, no spell, no item ability. I note that some are grayed out, and other seems to just be disabled. Not sure if relevant. Also, the clone is no affected by the Boots of Speed it should have, still moving at regular speed.

I tried protecting him behind Otiluke's Resilient Sphere but he made his save? I kinda expected it to be an automatic success. I guess it's only a success when I cast it on myself, but the clone is a different creature.

So I turned the clone invisible. At least it won't die too quickly. I could still cast Sunfire without turning visible, nor him. There's that at least. Still easier to just cast Invisibility on myself, but at least it's consistent.

Hmm actually no, that's weird. One of them attacked me while my sprite is still invisible, and so is the Mislead one.

Well, playing a Bard song with the Mislead turned him visible. I am really confused as to what break Invisibility or not.

I tried again a Mislead + Invisibility. I had it play the Bard Song before getting invisible, but I think actually playing it while invisible broke Invisibility. So, I haven't really found a great use of Mislead in an arena so far.

I tried the MGI and Skull Trap on myself when surrounded by enemies. Works great, ~60 damage each time. I still need to have some decent AC or Stoneskin to not get interrupted though.

I might have to work on my AC, having something close to -10. I'm at -7 so far. The Shield, Armor and Ghost Armor spells do not change the AC as the mail already is better. It would help is I was wearing clothing, but I'm not. Blur gives me an additional -3, so -10. But there are already so many great spells at level 2. I might need to buy the ring that adds more slots.

I tried the lizard battle a few times and it seems that I can lay traps in between rounds. So i put a Time Stop trap in an earlier battle, and now I have a Time Stop ready to kill them all, haha.

Oh, and I can create 6 Magic Flutes at once, allowing me to technically cast 18 delayed Fireball. Unfortunately, it breaks my stealth doing so.

MMM and Improved Haste is 10 attacks per round. This kills pretty quickly.

Still, I have trouble killing the drows. I should get some more money so I can buy the bracers that give me Improved Haste, so I can keep my three slots of PFMW, they really help but I'm not killing them fast enough, and they still manage to hurt me with spell. And more specifically, stun me. I really need to find a way to prevent stun, maybe a ring of free action, but it would cancel the boots of speed.

I also discovered that my effects (like PFMW) wear off during the enemies Time Stop. That's not logical nor fair, but I'll have to deal with that.

I have a small time window at the end of each fight, just enough to cast a trap. So I always put a Time Stop trap in the arenas. When they trigger in subsequent fights, it allows me to place myself to cast Sunfire. I killed the vampires in one go that way. I also bought the Bracers of Striking, to cast Improved Haste from the item directly.

I died against the Gith because they hit with normal weapons, not magical. And I forgot to protect myself from Divination so they break my invisibility. Thankfully, my Otiluke Contingency worked when the stunned me, but when it stopped, they just killed me. I'm not sure this is the best Contingency as it does not last long. Maybe Invisibility was better.

You can clearly see my Time Stop trap in the middle.

So I redid all the fights so far three times, to improve my reputation. Except the Drow one, I keep getting killed at this one, and I don't want to consume a potion of magic protection. What I'll do is buy all those potions, and get back to the Demons & Devils fight. It should move me to the next tier, and I'll see if the potion stock is replenished; if so, I might use one potion per fight.

Replaying battles for rewards

I also started redoing some fights to get the rewards.

This can summon minotaurs, and works with the wand of lightning, so I can summon 6 of them. It does break Invisibility though.

This is a great Club for doing damage poison.

I already have Jhor the Bleeder and I'm as proficient (one slot) in both so I'll have to see which one is better. Base damage of the Bastard sword is better obviously. Jhor does 2 damage per round for 5 rounds, Gnasher seems to only do it for 4 rounds. I don't really care about the amount of damage done, what I'm interested in is the ability to prevent spellcasters from casting. Jhor seems better on paper, but I'll have to give Gnasher a go. Oh wait no, I'm not proficient in Clubs. Well, I'll keep Jhor then.

Thanks to the Time Stop Traps I put on previous battle, I can perfectly aim my Sunfire and kill all Vampires i one go.

Got this nice sword. I like the fact that it's healing me. I wonder if it works even when I have MMM. It also does protect from charm and domination, but so does my shield. If I start using this sword I might be able to upgrade the shield.

Got a nice ~+3 weapon. Mostly +3, useful against demons and devils I think.

I might be using that now. Great way to know enemies weaknesses.

Now that I can invoke minotaurs, killing the drows is slightly easier as they hit pretty hard on the Scouts and Priestess. It still requires me to play with fire (ie. casting double Fireshield and PMW and wait for them to die on my shields), but it's doable.

Back to Demons and Devils

I keep getting killed in that fight. All the walkthrough of soloing the Black Pits I read mention this fight as one of the easiest, just having to wait until they kill each other. But for me, I keep dying. The Marilith especially is regenerating very quickly and has like 6 attacks, doing poison damage and can break my Invisibility protection.

I will have to try again, and maybe buy specific scrolls or potions to get through. I think I'll have to try a full-fighter approach. Beefing up my AC, and playing with Tenser, Improved Haste, and hitting with melee weapons.

I'm going to replay some old battles to gain some more cash. There are a few items I want to buy to improve my AC. I redid the Vampire fight a few times because it's one of the easiest and fastest. I bought the Help of Balduran for +1 AC.

I'm now going back to the fight and I'll try to tank damage as long as I can.

Ok, I got it. But I forgot to document it haha. If I remember correctly, I started with protection from magic. They triggered a Time Stop trap, allowing me to drink some Heroism and Power potion, getting me to ~300HP. Then I went into melee, used the wand of frost on them while they were fighting. I cast PMW so I could buff a bit more. I did some Mirror Image that was quickly disppelled. I did some more Stoneskin, Wand of Frost. Then I summoned MInotaurs as a distraction so I can hurl MMM at the demon. All this time they were taking damage from my Fireshield Blue, and I finished by kiting the Marilith and killing her with MMM.

I did it, but it took one potion of Magic Protection, one of Heroism and one of Power. They are all in limited stock, but because I finished the tier, the supplies got refurnished. It only goes up to their maximum stock, so I was right in buying all the potions before the end of the tier.

The infinite arrow exploit I wanted to pull won't work. I wanted to buy the whole stack of 5 Detonation Arrows, so I could then sell one back and it would have been added as a whole stack of 5. But as it was the only one in its inventory, selling it back to him, or waiting for refurnishing, only adds 5 stacks of one. There is nothing I can do with that. So best case scenario, I have 10 arrows of detonation, not an infinite stack.

Tier 3

This kills Golem that fail a Save. Could be useful if I encounter Golems.

I'll have to test the Stun effect, but if it stuns everyone in the path with no save, that's pretty powerful.

Oh, this is very nice. Being transformed as a rat through the Cloak of the Sewers already gives me 90% resistance to all physical damage. With that, I'll have to see if it makes me invincible to all physical damage. But that's 45k gold.

I should try to see if I can reliably auto-blind myself. If I can't see enemies, they can't see me either, so that could be a way to nuke them.

Oh, this is very good. I take that in the offhand, and this grants me one more attack in my main hand (in addition to the offhand attack). Also, the bleeding effect is nice.

There is also those two that also add the +1 attack, but don't have the bleeding effect and are only +2. Sure they are less expensive, but I think I'll save for the Ninjato.

Not bad either. Improved AC and more spell slots. I think I already have enough spell slots of those levels, but there might be some exploits to try with spell slots gained and lost.

This would be +5 AC. Good to keep in mind for when I need to tank.

Hmm, good replacement for the Helm of Balduran that I just bought. And actually cheaper.

I like the healing effect, but it would actually be cheaper to just buy potions. Note that I never had to heal myself in any fights so far.

Oh, shiny. More AC is always good, improving THACO as well, and even more spells? This could allow me to swap my ring of spells for something else.

Strength of 20 would allow me to hit harder more often. And there are not a lot of good belts out there. I might buy this if I still have some cash.

Good to know, but not worth buying if I can't have a full set that grants +100%

Oh, this looks very good. I'm not sure the movement speed would be worth it as I already wear the boots, and often am under Improved Haste. But the fact that it can cast it for 23 fucking rounds (much better than the 20s of the other item) is incredible. Also it states "increased movement rate", so I wonder if I can exploit it with the wand of lightning.

Fire Resistance +50%. I'm pretty sure there are enough gear to have Fire Resistance above 100% in this game. This opens possibilities of a full-Fire character that is getting healed by fire. But I already played that character in a previous BG1/BG2 run, so I'll pass this time.

Ring of Free Action. If it does protect from Stun, I might use it, even if it cancels the Boots of Speed.

Also good to have. Not that expensive, and could really help in some circumstances.

I'm not sure what to buy yet, I'll do a few other fights before. But for now, I'll level up.

I took Evasion, and it actually works with the Wand of Lightning!

Haha, ok I think I found something useful. Only three rounds, but that's three rounds of virtual invincibility. This made me wonder if the same trick would work with Offensive Spin. Unfortunately no, I only gain the benefits once, it does not stack.

Now, let's try the next fights. I think I'll do the same kind of workflow: win fights until it's too hard, and then replay old fights 3 times to improve reputation, then again to gain items, and get back to the initial "too hard" fight.

Monks

So this time it's 6 monks. I started with usual Invisibility and SID. They also turn invisible. Let's try some Sunfire nukes to see if they resist. They move super fast. As fast as me, I won't be able to kite them.

My Time Stop trap triggered, allowing me to have two in the radius. I'll only cast it once, to see if I can one-shot them. I managed to kill one. They all are resistant to Magic, but the Sun Soul Monks are also resistant to Fire.

So I buffed with Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Double Fireshield, Improved Haste, MMM and finally PMW and am summoning my Minotaur friends. The minotaurs are actually dealing some pretty impressive damage.

This is way easier than anticipated. I might redo the fight 2 more times and ask for rewards right away while I have the hang of it.

I did it a second time, killed 2 through Sunfire. Then Minotaur and Improved Haste and MMM. Did it a third time as well. I won some crappy gloves, and finally a nice Ion Stone

Golem

Hmm, this one is a very large Golem. I'm going to try to hit him and protect myself through the potion of Absorption. Maybe I'll buy the weapon that kills golem if I'm having a hard time.

He triggered the Time Stop trap, so testing some Sunfire to see if he's resistant. I expect him to be very resistant to magic. Yep, no effect. I'm adding all the buffs I have and testing his resistances.

He's immune to Frost, Lightning and Poison. He still takes fire damage through the flail. He takes crushing damage, but resists half of it. I'm not a very good fighter, I only have two attacks, so it might take a while. I'll switch to MMM and see. Even on melee, I manage to hit him with MMM. He's only taking a couple of damage each time, but still.

I tried the Minotaurs for help, but their weapons are not working. BUT they are acting as a shield, preventing him from moving and allowing me to keep sending MMM his way.

Wait, what? When he died he split into smaller parts? Ok... This is going to be longer than expected. They still can't hit me, but still... This is very very long. They can't hit me, but I'm really slow at killing them. Fireshield blue does nothing. They can only take fire damage. They can't be charmed. I might have to use Tenser, or a potion to increase my attacks and THACO. They can still hit me with critical hits.

I'm going to do it again. I bought the Rod of Smiting, that should kill the Golem quickly. It's not meant to be used by any other than a cleric or mage, but thanks to UAI it will make this fight so much easier. I also got the Ninjato to gain one attack, and stock piled on Improved Haste and even got a Tenser transformation in it as well.

I redid the fight, simply gulping potions of Absorption. He still managed to hit me with 19 and 20, not exactly sure why. I cast one Fireshield Red, but I'm unsure if it actually hurt him. I tried the rod of Golem Smiting, but he seemed to always succeed his save, even with a 2, so I'm not sure how saving throws work anymore. I switched back to the Flail of Ages, and it killed him much faster. I changed my AI script to auto attack, and waited.

Tried a third time and this time I switched back to the rod to kill the smaller golems, and it worked

I killed it one more time for the reward, and somehow he didn't split into smaller parts. I just had to kill the one big guy. Works for me. I only got a lousy plate armor this time. Trying again.

I now realize that my Ioun stone that regenerates 1HP/round actually regenerates more than that under the effect of Improved Haste. That's a nice combo for me. Passive regeneration. I did not get any reward this time. Trying again.

This time again he did not split into smaller parts. And I got my reward.

Ah, this would have made the fight much easier. Anyway, now I know I can redo this fight in auto-pilot and win some cash each time if I need. I could even maybe use that in the offhand for the passive Strength, it might actually be useful.

This is the THACO and Damage difference with or without Crom Faeyr in the offhand. 4 to -3 in THACO, double the damage. Ouch, this is actually better than I expected.

So I bought the Defender of Easthaven and tried the combo with turning into a rat and....

It worked! Now I have a way to be immune to all physical damage, and almost immune to missile. I think it will just reduce the damage to zero, it will still interrupt spells and I might still be afflicted by effects. It's not the same as having a very low AC, but it should help a lot. The problem is that I cannot cast spells in that form, only use wands and stuff. But still, it's a great way, along with Fireshields, to tank and deal damage at the same time.

Picking up the right weapons

I now have those four weapons. The Flail of Ages +4, Defender of Easthaven, Crom Faeyr and Ninjato of the Scarlet Brotherhood. I have to pick the best combination.

Obviously the Defender should be circumstancial, as part of the Rat Defender combo. Nice to have in the backpack, but maybe not in all fights.

The ninjato should always be used in the offhand, as it gives me one additional attack on the main hand.

Now, I thought I would keep the Flail of Ages in my main hand, but Crom Faeyr strength bonus is so huge that it gives me a +6 bonus to THACO, just passively, not even counting the +5 of the weapon itself. So having Crom Faeyr in the main hand as opposed to the Flail of Ages already makes my THACO -3 instead of +4. With the Ninja-to in the offhand that's -3/+3, which is actually pretty powerful. I think I'll keep it that way.

I'll keep the Flail of Ages if I encounter enemies that need to be hit with a specific elemental damage.

Now is the time where I don't have enough slots in my inventory to store all the great stuff. Reminds me of when I was doing duels on BG2 in my old guild.

In my tests, I also discovered that the Missile bonus of this amulet stacks with itself, so you can cast it on yourself many times and become virtually invincible to range attacks.

I also leveled up and took Avoid Death and Greater Evasion.

Greater Evasion with the Wand of Lightning seems to give me incredible saving throws, it also set the AC to -24, just like regular Evasion. I don't know if it's a display issue or an engine limitation; the details correctly displays -36 as a modifier.

Chain casting Avoid Death though is not worth it. I don't get the HP bonus several times, nor the Death Save bonus. I'll reload and take something else.

Lich & Bone Golems

Hmm, 5 Bone Golems and what they call a Lich. It's a different sprite than the liches I'm used to fight so we'll see how she fares. Usual problems with Liches is that they cast Time Stop and are resistant to Magic. I might have to buy the Daystar sword to kill it if I'm having too much issues.

But first, let's try the usual tactics. Ah shit, won't be able to do that, I forgot to change my spells.

So, she seems to be protected from Fire/Frost/etc and even Magical damage. She has some spell turning and spell deflection. She also protects herself from Magical Weapon, this is a bummer. Maybe I'll kill here with my Minotaurs then.

I turned Invisible and SID, it was enough to get protected from her True Sight. I then started casting Fireshield to see if they would take some damage. And then I died because I forgot that I had enabled auto-attack AI...

Let's try again. Still invisible. MMM, Stoneskin and Fireshields. They triggered the Time Stop trap, gonna try the Sunfire on the bone golems.

I got a "Spell Ineffective". That's not even Magical Resistance, nor immunity to the damage type, but something more powerful. Maybe immunity to a specific school of magic or spell level.

She cast Time Stop to rebuff again (Mirror Image, etc) but also a Dragon's Breath. I might die. And web. That's clever. She's also casting Magic Missile, which is weird, as I'm not supposed to be targettable.

Ok, so she can target me even when invisible... That's pretty fucked up. I might have to just go full on her. I died.

I did the Golem fight again, to get some money to buy the Daystar sword. Oops, it's 15k, I only have 5k. I'm gonna try the fight again, normally.

I protected myself from Divination so they cannot break my Invisibility. I also protected from Abjuration so they cannot dispel the protection, and finally from Evocation so the Big Damage Spells like Magic Missile or Dragon's Breath should not do any damage.

Now I add some Fireshield, for scientific purposes, see if I can damage them. Then I will to Greater Evasion to have better Saves and AC, and try to hit the Lich if I can, otherwise killing the golems. Ah shit. I understand why/how the Lich managed to target me. I was still in auto-attack AI. Balls!

I was lucky and my Time Stop Trap (TST) triggered and I tried to hit the Lich.

I'm not sure what this means. What is this "Fire Shield: Rajiik" am I doing damage to her, or is she doing to me? I understand she's immune to Lightning though. I also tried to hit with a non-magical weapon, and I got a "Weapon Ineffective". So I guess she's naturally immune to normal weapons, and cast a PMW spell in addition. I might have to break her resistances.

So what I understand is that I'm immune to bad stuff she was supposed to cast on me, but she is also immune to most of what I do, except for slow, which is pretty good for me.

I tried the wand of frost, and the golems are immune (Spell Ineffective). I can hit them with with Crom Faeyr though.

The good news is that with the Haste spell, the amulet and the Greater Evasion, I am fucking fast, which allow me to kite them easily. The bone golems take some damage from MMM, but it's faster to hit them with the hammer directly.

She still casts Web, and then remove my protection. Evasion was great. I think Evasion, then PMW, should get me through the Golems. I need some spell protections at the start (maybe I should buy a scroll so I can protect myself from everything. But it would be faster to just buy a potion of magic protection). Maybe just bolstering my saves would be enough. Evasion provides that. I will need some potion for when I'm out of Evasion.

I tried another one and I think she dispelled my protections. I'm not sure. Either that or my Evasion run out. Still, she killed me with some spells. I think she cast Abi-Dalzim and Skull Trap, which are Necromancy spells. I should get some protection against that.

I tried again. What I learned is that Dragon's Breath is not Necromancy and it dealt a lot of damage. I might need to build up my fire protection, or protect against Evocation (if that is truly evocation).

What I also learned is that I need a (minor) globe of invulnerability, to protect myself from the web spell. I also got affected by Fear. I need something to protection from fear. Maybe a potion of Clarity.

One more try. This time I correctly protected myself against Necromancy and Evocation, and beefed up my Fire Resistance. She cast some Skull Trap my way, even if I was invisible, but it had no effect. She is also casting Abi-Dalzim, and still no effect. Maybe I should just wait for her to use her spells? But no, I decided to keep buffing and start attacking her minions.

And here we go.

They seem to not be able to hit me.

So, I miss with a 1, that's expected. I hit with a 6, that's good. They take full crushing damage, but no Lightning damage. They only take half damage from my slashing ninjato, and are not affected by the poison effect.

I'm in the midst of two Abi-Dalzim spells, and I don't care. I need to be very careful when my Evasion wears off, so I can cast it again. Thankfully, it's an instant cast, but I have to be very reactive on the space bar the moment I see the icon disappear.

Hmm. I don't know what she did here, but she apparently dispelled my "combat protection" using a wand, even through my Spell Immunity.

My icon still seem to have the three SI. Seems like she dispelled my Evasion though. Ah shit, I forgot to protect against Abjuration. Silly mistake. That's why she could dispel me. Gonna cast that right now.

Well, she seem to have used another wand. And this time I lost control of my character (frozen in place with the confusion symbol above his head). My Otiluke sphere kicked in, but I know I'm dead. I might need to drink a potion of Invulnerability, or Magic Protection to have better Wand Saving Throws next time (and protect myself from dispel).

Hmm. She managed to target me even while I was Invisible. I think the order in which I buff is here very important. I need to cast a Globe quickly so I don't get hit by this nor the Skull Trap nor the Web.

Oh, the potion of Magic Protection does protect from all Elemental Damage. I thought it was only "Magic Damage". Well, that's very good to know. I might actually stop protecting myself from Evocation and Necromancy then. Her spells might actually heal me.

Holy cow, she keeps doing that. She removed my Stoneskin. I still have the Spell Immunities, but she dispelled the Stoneskin and she can dispel the Evasions as well. Maybe I'll just bait her into using her wands?

I cast Mirror Image, she didn't react. I cast Stoneskin, she dispelled with her wand, but I kept the Mirror Image. I'm really not sure what her deal his. I cast Defensive Spin to try. She didn't seem to mind. I cast a fire shield, she didn't care either. Improved Haste: no reaction. Now I'm going full Evasion, and we'll see.

I'm killing her golems, and she does not react. Her fireshield went down, and she didn't recast it. Maybe she's out of spells?

My own protections are going down. I'm only protected against Evocation, which is useless now. I should maybe recast Spell Immunity. Maybe Divination so I can run in hiding if need be; or Abjuration so I cannot be dispelled. Definitely not Necromancy as I'm already resistant to all damage and succeed my saving throws. Going with Abjuration.

Ok, they are all dead. Now, let's try the lich.

She's fleeing when I approach her. I can hit her, but it only removed Mirror Images. She protected against Magical Weapons. I tried the flail of ages, hoping that the elemental damage would get through, but it didn't. Thankfully, I had packed some normal weapons, gonna try that

Still does not work. Well, protected against all sorts of weapons, I guess I'll just have to wait and keep hitting until her protection wears off. I've been using that spell a lot myself, I know it does not last long.

I still have pretty good magic protection, but I still cast a globe of Invulnerability on top of that.

What the fuck? One moment after I took this screenshot, my resistances went back to normal.

Thanks to the fireshield I still had some fire resistance, which protected me from the dragon's breath but I'm in trouble.

Well, I didn't want to use one of those potions, but now I think I don't have another choice.

She keeps casting PMW and Abi-Dalzim, but I'm still protected from magic and I can hit all day, we'll see who gets tired first.

First sign of weakness I see.

Hmm, she managed to decrease my Magic Resistance. I still need to be careful.

I'm finally breaking through her Mirror Images.

Finally, switching to the Flail, I managed to deal her some damage. But she keeps moving around, so It's gonna take a while.

Seriously? She turned invisible and hid behind a pillar to cast Stoneskin. And there is nothing I can do except wait.

I put some delayed Fireball. She is the opaque sphere. Invisible. And me, I'm waiting.

Ah, she finally turned visible again. And I'm now chasing after her to deal 2 points of damage.

And at some point, just like this, I was able to hit her for a good hit, and she died.

So, this is a fight I think I can replay. The key is the Potion of Magic Protection. That, plus Evasion and Improved Haste to kill the golems. But it's still a very long fight, and can I don't have an infinite supply of Magic Protection potions. I'm gonna try other battles first.

Rakshasas

This thing I now realize with the High Level Bard is that I will never get level 7, 8 or 9 spells. No Mordenkainen Sword, Project Image, Simulacrum or even Wish. It really limits the possibilities. In the context of the Black Pits, it does add some challenge that I like, though.

Anyway, let's try the Rakshasas.

From what I remember, they tend to turn invisible, are protected by Fireshields and can't be hurt by spells of level 3 or less.

One Maharajah, two Ruhks and Three Rakshasas. They got protected with Fireshield, protection from elements, spell turning, blur and Stoneskin.

I took advantage of my TST to cast Sunfire on the 3 Rakshasas. Spell Ineffective. The Marajah also cast Mislead. I think this is going to be pretty boring to counter.

The "Marajah" died from my Sunfire, but I'm pretty sure it was only the decoy.

I buffed with MI, Stoneskin, 2FS and of course Improved Haste and Evasion. I killed a Rashasa in 3 hits, and they can't hit me so far.

I missed the Ruhk with a 21...

Rakshasa still take cold damage from my shield. I'll try to keep focusing on the Ruhk while they get hurt by the shield.

The Ruhk cast Breach, which is an Abjuration spell and it still manages to remove my fireshield, stoneskin and Evasion. Maybe I'll need something to protect against Breach...

I killed the Rakshasa easily and quickly, but now the Ruhk have too many layers of Mirror Image and Stoneskin here. I'm trying the Flail to get through those layers quickly but, it's not proving very effective.

I managed to summon the minotaurs for distraction, and the Maharajah finally got out of his Invisibility to cast Time Stop, Alacrity, Death Spell (this will kill all the summons), Comet and PMW.

Then, one of the Ruhk hit me with his sword and stunned me. I really need to put an Invisibility instead of an Otiluke in that Contingency. They seem to auto-stun on hit. I'm not sure how to protect myself from stun. I'll try a potion of Clarity.

So, I checked and only a Scroll of Magic Protection would protect from Breach (but that would make it useless as you can't have any magic protection under such a scroll), or Spell Shield (but it's a level 8 spell, that I will never have, and even then it will be consumed). So I won't be able to avoid the Breach. Then maybe I should just bait them into casting Breach when I only have a few protection spells.

Also, they are immune to level 5 and lower spells. So I guess I really have to hit them on melee.

Redoing the Demons & Devils

Just for fun (and for completion's sake) I redid the Demons/Devils fight. I didn't even have the right spell list prepared, but I just buffed with Improved Haste and Evasion and went in melee killing everyone. It was a piece of cake. Crom Faeyr really changes everything. I'll be doing this fight a couple of time to get Blackrazor and Celestial Fury.

Ah, I died because I got charmed. I might need to cast the globe faster next time. Or just wear the shield that protects from charm. I used the shield next time, and just ran into melee killing everyone. This was so easy. I can't believe it took me days and countless attempts to beat them initially.

And this baby is mine. The stun is incredible, I hope it works against the Rakshasas.

I bought a scroll of Champion's Strength because I can now use Priest scrolls.

Well, it actually makes my THACO worse. Sure it gives a nice bonus, but because it decreases my Strength, it's not worth it. Too bad.

I retried the Demon/Devil fight a few time and kept dying. First the Erinyes charmed me, then the demon vorpaled me. Ah and now Symbol Death. And now I take a fear and start running. Seriously. Now I got a Symbol: Stun and a Fear. I don't get it. This was a super easy fight and now I keep getting killed by random demons. Ah and this time the Cornugon stun me. Rhaa this time I got charmed. And Feared.

FINALLY. After SO MANY TRIES. This was getting frustrating.

This is very very good. Immunity to charm and fear in a weapon. I won't need to have my shield anymore. Draining levels on every hit, with the ninjato that will render people helpless. Also increasing my STR, means I might not even need Crom Faeyr. I'll have to see if the haste somehow stacks with other things.

Back to the cats

I bought Breach, Lower Resistance, Pierce Magic, True Sight and Summon Nishruu myself and gonna try a few of them on the cats.

They got hit by my TST at the start of the fight. I tried to hit them, but the Maharajah was untargettable. I then tried a Ruhk, I seem to have moved toward him, but then the Time Stop ended, so I'm not sure if I can hit them.

I killed on Rakshasa with Black Razor and Crom Faeyr but I don't think Blackrazor triggered. I'll keep using Crom and Ninjato to kill the simple ones quickly.

The maharajah did a Time Stop and Comet, but he took damage himself. The then breached me, which remove the GI and then spammed Magic Missile on me. I will try next time to summon a Nishruu and see how they react, if they waste spells on them.

So, I can hit the Ruhk when in a Time Stop, not the Maharajah, but I take damage from their shields. I will need a way to protect myself from that

Well, Time Stop and this. I think I'm dead.

Still, what I learned is that True Sight takes a very long time to cast, but is very good in dispelling their buffs. I could cast a simple Shield to protect myself from the Magic Missiles, or a MGI for broader protection. And some Fire Protection through a potion and I should avoid most of their damage without using a Potion of Magic Protection. I still didn't had time to try the Nishruu thing.

I guess the key is into having enough protection to kill the 3 simple ones, avoiding the hits from the Ruhks.

After a break of a few days, I'm coming back to it.

I started with Improved Haste, hoping to hit them during the TST. I couldn't hit any of them. Somehow they were not targetable. Maybe I should cast True Sight before. I tried to summon a Nishruu, but the Time Stop ended and they interrupted the spell.

I turned invisible and used True Sight myself. If did remove a lot of their protections. I buffed and started attacking the smaller ones. They breached me. I cast Mirror Image, they breached me again. I managed to kill the smaller one, I can even kill them with arrows of acid. I tried to bait them with a Magic Shield, but they didn't Breach this time. I stayed alive quite a bit, but I couldn't find a way to kill the Ruhk. They have either too many layers of Stoneskin/Mirror Image or are immune to my attacks.

I can kill the first three easy, but I have no clue how to fight the remaining threes. Maybe just wait for their spells to end, like I did with the other spellcaster. Stay invisible, and bait them? I guess I could redo the Lich fight, win the Staff of the Magi and have an infinite number of Invisibilities.

Farming the Lich

I went back to the Lich. With just a Greater Evasion and Improved Haste, I could kill all the golems. Then, it's a long battle between me and the lich. I use a Magic Protection potion, wait for her to use her spells, remove her protections, wait for her to get out of her invisibility, and finally she died.

What I learned is that the moment I cast Stoneskin, she uses her wand of dispel. That's a great way to have her get out of Invisibility.

I asked for the reward, not improving my reputation, and I got this:

Not very useful at the moment, no.

I'll try to redo it another time, farming the staff this time. Then I'll redo it for the reputation.

I have time to cast Improved Haste, Spell Immunity, drink a potion of Clarity and almost kill one of the golems at the start. Ah, shit, she chain casted magic missile my way during a time stop. I might need a MGI instead of Spell Immunity.

I retried another one, and transformer into an invisible troll. I allowed me to regenerate and I also think it is immune to many effects. She has been cast so many spells my way, and I just avoided them. I can confirm that she attemps to dispel me with a wand whenever I cast Stoneskin. But I was stupid and used all my Stoneskins, so now I have no way to make her go out of hiding.

Once again, all the golems are dead, and the game is now to manage to hit her. I tried to summon a nishruu to have her use all her spells on it, but she simply dispelled it. It was a bit long, waiting for her to get out of hiding, but I finally got her. Didn't get the reward, though...

This time I started with Improved Haste (I think it makes me cast faster). Then during the TST, SID and turning invisible. Then Immunity to Necromancey (to avoid Abi-Dalzim) and Evocation (to avoid most damage spells). Mirror Image because she does not dispel it, and a potion of Clarity just to be sure.

Then, we go killing the golems, recasting Greater Evasion the moment it's down.

They can still hit me on a Critical Hit, even with my -24 AC apparently. I regenerate about 1HP/second so I should be ok as long as I don't get two criticals in a row.

I forgot how powerful this was. Even just the AC, Saving Throws and Protection from Evil makes it a great staff. Add permanent invisibility and a huge Spell Trap and it feels like the ultimate weapon.

My sprite is pretty impressive.

I'll now redo the fight two times for the reputation. I think I have the hang of it. Spell Immunity: Divination and the staff allow me to buff as much as I can. I use an Immunity to Necromancy, a Globe of Invulnerability and Potion of Clarity and went on killing the golems while protected by Greater Evasion. Once done, Dispel the Lich, hit her, True Sight, hit her and done. Long fight, but not dangerous if done properly.

Now, let's get back to the Rakshasas.

Back to the Rakshasas again

This time I took a few summon spells. Animate Dead and Spider Spawn. Just summoning them made them waste some Time Stop and Comet on the summons while I was buffing on my side of the arena.

Then, (ab)using the Staff of the Magi, I cast some Remove Magic (I was incorrectly using Dispel Magic on my previous games, actually debuffing myself) on them and then attacked with Celestial Fury and Crom Faeyr when their protections were down. Remove Magic removes the Fireshields, while True Sight removed the blur and invisibility.

And that's it, I'm victorious. It was actually really easy this time. The key was to Remove their Magic protections

I asked for a reward, but didn't get anything. Gonna do it for the reputation now, and then for the reward again.

Next battle

Ah shit, I clicked on "Next battle" by mistake. I might not be prepared, we'll see.

Oh, Illithids and slaves. Hmm I guess with a Potion of Clarity, the Illithids won't be an issue. We'll see.

I cast a Mislead. With the staff of the Magi, he is invisible. I'll see if it allows me to stay Invisible as well.

Hmm, this seems extra-buggy because I could kill all three Illithids without them even reacting. Their max HP bar was refilling though, but I think that's because I hit them with Blackrazor, draining levels, so they ended up maxed in HP, but drained in levels.

Because they can't see me, they don't attack, so they keep running. I had to stop them in a web to be able to finally hit them reliably.

This was the easiest battle I ever did. I just had to hit them until they died, dispel a few protections, and done. Gonna do it again for sure.

Oh, and it brings me to the next tier. Hmm maybe I should have bought some more stuff before the tier jump so it gets replenished. Too bad.

Replaying Cats and Tentacles

Redoing the Rakshasa and Ilithids a few times for the reputation (Rakshasa 3 times, Illithids 2 times) and then the reward.

With Improved Haste, I'm able to kill the three Rakshasas during the Time Stop trap.

Won that, but as I cannot cast spells of those levels, it does not grand me slots, unfortunately.

The Mind Flayers are really easy. I just run in the center while invisible with the Staff, cast Sunfire. With some luck I kill them all, otherwise one or two are still Near Death. Then I Mislead, Improved Haste and go kill the Illithids. Blackrazor and Ninjato seems to be the best combo. No risks involved, and almost no buff needed.

Also got this. Borderline useless to me.

This on the Rakshasas. Magic Resistance is great if and only if I can get it to 100%. Immunity to Death Magic could be situational. Greater Restoration is great because it fully heals me. Not sure if this is better than a potion, though.

Finally, I got what I wanted. One more attack under improved haste.

Shopping spree

Because I redid the last two fights several times, I'm now pretty rich. I'm going to buy some interesting stuff at the merchants.

This could be part of a MR combo.

This could help me summon some creatures. I'll have to try and see if they are useful summons.

Hmm, this could be interesting. If the effect bypass MR and has no save it means that with 6 attacks per round, I cripple the THAC0 of 12 points, making the target unable to hit me. That could be interesting.

Ah, interesting to kill some undeads.

Oh, this could do a lot of damage in the hands of someone that can actually use a staff (ie. not me)

I'll have to test how much Movement rate I can stack

Ah, now we're talking. With Simulacrum, I should be able to cast high level spells from scrolls without consuming them.

The 7th level is wasted on me, but two more slots of 5th and 6th level is interesting.

A +3 ring. Unfortunately, I cannot wear those rings with my armor, that already includes a bonus.

Why not. Slightly better than the Cloak of the Sewers, and I can still keep the cloak for when I need to turn into a jelly or a rat.

Oh, this could actually maybe open some interesting play with Simulacrum, Mislead and other clones that would not take any damage from lightning but bounce it everywhere.

My favorite potions got a restock.

I bought a few spells, hoping to cast them through the Simulacrum.

I can cast a Simulacrum, which itself can cast a Mislead. His mislead does not have the staff of the Magi, while mine does.

It seems that even if I kill the Mislead, me and my Simulacrum are still invisible.

If the Simulacrum casts Time Stop, he's the only one affected, not my main character. This makes sense, but I needed to try.

Also, apparently I can leave the Mislead in the dorm and move outside while still being invisible and able to cast spells.

I had fun sending lightning between me and a clone, both protected by the cloak. It killed all the merchants and summoned The Winged that just one shot me.

Planetars

6 Planetars. They seem to start the fight invisible, I cannot target them.

Well, not all of them. The Fallen Devas are, but Ariziel is not, I can hit him during a Time Stop.

They seem to see me, even when I'm invisible, but I still outrun them.

I can kill a few of them when protected behind Greater Evasion, but they are hard to debuff.

They are not immune to Lightning, so I tried firing a lot of Lightning through our two cloak, but they move too quickly for this to be super effective. The stun from the Staff of Power does work though, so that with a great debuff I should be able to do something interesting.

Firing enough bolts horizontally and they all get stuned. But they recast Mirror Image so quickly it's hard to actually hit them. Oh I actually realized that I can be myself stunned by the ray. Hmm, I still haven't found a reliable way to prevent stun.

That being said, this absolutly unorthodox method seems to work. Even if my clone and myself are stunned, as we are aligned and bouncing rays, anyone getting in the line gets the damage and the stun. Now I just need to be lucky and have the last angel go in the line.

That worked.

This is actually a fucking brilliant tactic. Take a Simulacrum with the Cloak of reflection. Have it send Regular LIghnting bolts, or Paralyzation lightning bolt at you and do the same. You create an infinite ray of light and you're immune to it.

Well, the only issue with this tactic is that it is creating so many bolts that the game is slow to the point that it's unresponsive. Dennaton congratulated me, I clicked "Continue" and all I can see is the arena and all I can hear is the lightning bold sound effect. The sound moved from lightning bolts to the sound of the Pits. I'm just going to force quit and I'll have to redo the fight.

I tried again, and couldn't attack some of them during the first Time Stop, it seems there is some kind of bug and even if I click attack, my character does not attack. I still managed to make him attack one of them and almost kill it, but then Time Stop ended. I could avoid most of their attacks with Greater Evasion (they still hit with 18+), and then they used Harm, which reduces my HP to 1. I need to protect against that.

This is a +2 weapon (hits like a +5), from Necromancy. Meaning I can protect against it with Spell Immunity or PMV. Spell Immunity lasts longer, so I might go with that.

So I started killing the first one during the Time Stop Trap. Also managed to create a Simulacrum. I then used Greater Evasion to lure them to me while the Simulacrum was able to cast Improved Haste on himself and chain cast Time Stop from a scroll (I wanted to see if they would stack). At the same time, I was dispelling them and kiting them. When the Simulacrum finished casting Time Stop, and went into killing one of the devas.

Crom Faeyr in main hand with Ninja-to in the offhand is the most reliable way to inflict damage.

So the Time Stop does not stack with itself. Chain casting it does not seem to have any impact. Still I managed to kill two Devas during the Time Stop with the Simulacrum. I can only imagine how devastating this would be with a Fighter/Mage that could cast it several times.

Two of me with Mirror Image, protected from Necromancy and with Improved Haste, we're just killing them. They still managed to stun me at the end, so I couldn't set another Time Stop Trap.

I was redoing the fight for reputation, but weirdly enough, it happened in another arena. So I still have my Time Stop Trap.

This time it didn't work at all. I couldn't even kill one of them during the Trap and didn't even had time to protect myself from Necromancy before getting stunned.

I tried again and didn't manage to do much with the Simulacrum, but I could tank with SI:N, Mirror Image and Stoneskin, enough to actually kill them. The Simulacrum died too quickly to do much. Also, True Sight is much better than Remove magic against them.

When I can pull it, hitting them with a Simulacrum during a Time Stop is perfect.

I could now redo the fight for Carsomyr, but I don't think I'll need it.

Demi-Liches

Next fight is against two demi-liches (the floating skull types). I'm going on this first attempt testing what they can do, not do. I already know they will try to Imprison me, so I'll protect against Abjuration. They are also highly resistant to Crushing damage (90%) and I expect them to be even more resistant to slashing and piercing.

But I don't know if they can see invisibility, if they are affected by the Mace of Disruption or Daystar, etc. Let's see.

They can be hit with MMM, albeit not for very much damage.

The Mace of Disruption seems to be working, but as I'm in a Time Stop, there is no visible effect. I'm going to try to hit the other one.

Well, that's what written, but they are still both very much not destroyed.

The Sunray had no effect, but hitting them with the Sunray sword seems to inflict some magical damage. I tried hitting them with Magic Missile, but no effect. But just hitting them with this sword seems to be enough, they die quickly. Because I was protected against Abjuration I feel like none of their spells could hit me.

Daystar +2 is a much better weapon than I expected. It does default slashing damage, but seems to also add its bonus as Magic damage, and when hitting undeads, it does another 2 points of Slashing, but another magic damage. The fact that it's Magic damage is important, because very few enemies are resistant to it. I'm gonna keep that sword when hitting undeads, that's way more powerful than I expected.

I tried again, and I kept getting killed. They stun lock me, than kill me. I guess I might have to also protect against Necromancy.

Finally got the Cloak of Mirroring. From what I understand, I can no longer be harmed by Magic Missile, Melf Acid Arrow and such. Not sure if I can be hurt by wands, or Fireballs. I guess I can be in the radius, but as monsters will target me and not an empty space near me, maybe I will be immune. I need to do a few tests in the dorm.

So it does block Magic Missile. Does not prevent Piercing damage from MMM, but does cancel the Fire Damage. It does protect from the Lightning bold fired from a wand, but not from their rebounds. Does not prevent casting of Web or Clouds, but is immune to Skull Trap.

And finally, the great ring. AC +2, that stacks with other AC. Quick regeneration. Immunity to Disease and Poison.

MR +10% is great (but really, MR is only ever reliable if you have 100%). Invisibility is useless with the Staff. Improved Haste could help as a last resort if we already used all other IH we have.

Exploration

Since I discovered that I can cast spells and use items if I let a Mislead in the dorm, I'm going for a bit of exploration and shopping.

I missed this line the first time, but it grants +3AC and stacks with my armor. Silence Immunity is also useful. I'll keep it.

I tried to summon a sword and a shambling mound from the dorms, but it seems that summons are disabled. So I went in the enemy team lodge, stole a few items, nothing fancy.

Dragons

One large dragon and two wyvern like. I'll try the usual IH and Greater Evasion, and we'll see from there.

It takes lightning damage, but no crushing. Let's try another weapon.

Ok, so seems immune to crushing, but takes all the elemental damages.

The smallest ones take normal damage.

Oh, and the bigger one seems to not be immune to Imprisonment. ✔ Done.

That was super easy. Gonna do it again. On the second try the Simulacrum got scared and killed, so I had to finish it with my own Imprisonment scroll. Third try, killed the two wyverns during the initial TST. Had the Simulacrum cast Time Stop and Emprisonment, and done.

What I learned is that the Improved Haste from the Ring of Gaxx can be used in a Time Stop, without having to wait for the spell to be cast at the end of the Time Stop. Pretty great for buffing during the Time Stop.

I must say the Simulacrum casting Time Stop and Imprisonment while I distract the monsters works wonder.

I won this. Strength 22 is less than Crom Faeyr. Immunity to level drain I can have it with other gear. Additional fire damage is nice but not extraordinary. I might have to try it though, to see if it has any hidden capabilities while in combat.

This might be better. 2d4+5 damage is great, +6 against undead, demons and devils is situational but pretty frequent. Only issue is that it's a bastard sword and I'm not proficient in it.

Bhaalspawn

This time it seems to be Bhaalspawns.

I took advantage of the TST to create some spectral blades and cast sunfire.

This killed many cultists, but got me flying prone. Not sure why. Maybe they explode when they die?

Ah ok, one could turn into a Slayer. Maybe I should have focused on this one first.

He did what? The slayer backstabbed me in plain sight for 80 damage. Shit.

And he is immune to Time Stop, he keeps moving even during my clone Time Stop. I'll still try to Imprison him. But I died before being able to see if it would work.

Ok, let's try again, and this time, focus on the guy before he turns into a slayer.

This time I managed to kill him during my TST. But the duration of the trap seems buggy. Sometimes it seems to reactivate a second time.

The second one can also transform into a slayer, but is easier to kill.

Rebellion

Seems like it's now the start of the rebellion. The Winged and her hunters are away.

I prepared a trap for the guards, but they somehow went through.

I charged into the rebellion head first and got myself killed. I'm going to try again, but being very sneaky and trying to see if I can abuse the scripts.

So, I can move all the way to this spot without triggering the Rebellion (the talking NPC is still behind the fog of war), but I can cast spells. It means I can cast Mislead and go exploring and lay traps. I can even sleep.

Shops have also been replenished:

A +5 Vorpal weapon; this is powerful. I'm not proficient in axes, though.

Does a lot of damage to undeads. I don't think there are any undeads in the final fight, though.

This, is very good. The level drain should happen consistently, but it's a two handed weapon. There is a few great two handed weapons out there, I wonder if I should try to wear them. The issue is that it will greatly reduce the number of APR, and APR seems the most important stats, considering all the on-hit effects the weapons have (usually more important than the default damage it's doing).

This is another very good two handed weapon. Paralysis and Poison on the same weapon? This is insane. I might buy it just for fun.

Double movement rate ? Whoa, this seems very interesting for a fight type. I will have to buy it and see how it works. I tried, and it's basically the same effect as Paws of the Cheetah, but they do not stack. Could be interesting for warrior-type, to free up a boot slot, but there isn't even that many great boots.

That's a better version of my chainmail. The Protection from Normal Weapon at this stage in the game seems useless, but I'm sure I can find an combo/exploit of some kind by firing stuff at myself.

Of course, there is also this. The AC is good, but not that extraordinary. But the Casting Time reduction is huge. I wonder if it also applies to scrolls.

So I now have to choose between -10 AC and Protection from Magic Weapon, or -5 AC and Casting Speed decreased by 4.

I also bought the Bow of Gesen to see if it was firing Lightning Bolts as I was remembering, and see if I could reflect it with the cloak. So now, it's firing (slow) arrows of lightning, but it is not reflected.

I prepared a trap in the fighting room.

I started the Rebellion, almost got myself killed by the guards. There are too many people fighting (and allied mages casting Time Stop) to be able to read the log and really understand what is going on. So I put on my Mirror Image, Improved Haste and Evasion and went on hitting them.

I'm letting my "friends" do the fight, while Invisible, there are too many people doing too many things.

Awesome. The Near Death mage managed to put me to sleep right before turning invisible. This sleep effect is lasting a very very long time...

And now a guard is waiting for me to wake up. I woke up firing lightning bolts while wearing the cloak that reflects them. This killed everyone in the room.

Found some stuff in the vault. Useless at this point.

Great AC boost.

This is very good. Very very good. I loot it.

I then started the rebellion for real. Got thrown into the pits with "friends" and Humber Hulks. I killed all the Hulks with Sunfire, but it killed some of my friends as well. So far I think not many of my friends survived.

But wait, my "friends" gave me a lousy potion of Strength and it dropped the Flail of Ages I had in that spot? No way. I'm going to see if I ever go back to the previous arena to pick it up.

Oh this time another "friend" gave me a Scroll of Protection from Magic. This is the Ultimate weapon. All those items I receive are assigned to my first inventory slot, and if full they drop the item that was there on the ground. This time I was able to pick the scroll on the ground and ditch the potion of heroism they gave me instead.

I managed to drink the Potion of Power quickly and picked up an item to replace it. I feel like the final fight will be on that area...

Actually I moved to another arena. I feel like I will have several arenas until I get to the last part, so I'll have to be careful with my use of resource. This time I was lucky and my TST worked, so I could send a few Sunfire in them.

This killed a few but not all of them.

I'm trying all my items to not use too much resources. I killed a few more with some lightning bolts from the wand, but THIS staff is incredibly powerful. The stun has no save and lasts for a while. It takes some time to cast though, so maybe I should have kept the Robe of Vecna, but still.

I finally moved to the last battle, against all the group. This is very hard. I think I can find a way to buff before the fight at least to have SI:D because they can see invisibility and The Winged kills with Vorpal hits. I almost killed Dormammu during the TST. I will try to cast more Time Stops and maybe block the mages under Scroll of Magic Protection. I'll also protect againt magic myself. This is the last fight. If I don't use my consumables now, I will never use them.

I killed the Humber Hulks without using any consumables this time, buffed and saved in the area.

Because I was more ready this time, I could cast two Sunfires in the group.

I also hit the dwarf in the last seconds of the trap, and only one survived. One last hit of Crom Faeyr and she's dead. I'm now buffing in preparation of the last fight.

Spell Immunity: Divination so I can stay Invisible and True Sight so I break their illusions. As I'm already protected against magic I should not need any other spell protection. I plan on casting a longer Time Stop during the first one, to make it longer. Then disabled spellcasters through Scroll of Magic Protection and casting a simulacrum.

So here is the full cast. The Winged is the one I'm most scared of as she can one-shot me with her vorpal sword. Bannor is not a problem, I'm highly resistant to crushing damage. I guess the Joker hits hard, and Dormamus and Pol Pyrrus will cast all sort of weird things.

I was right, all sorts of protections. Immune to spells 1-3. Immune to elemental damage. Immune to magic weapons. Spell turning, Stoneskin, Improved Haste and True Sight.

Slightly less for the Salamander. Only elemental protection, Stoneskin and a Fire Shield.

Too bad, I dispelled them all. They cannot be affected by magic of any kind (ie. no buff) and can't cast spells. I just hope I don't need that to actually hit them.

I can hit the Winged during the Time Stop. I still take a few damage (technically I think I shouldn't as I left her gloves in my chest, but still). She is barely resistant to lightning so I can still hit her with Crom Faeyr.

Contingencies are firing from the other fighters. Because they are both under the effect of a Time Stop and the Scroll of Magic Protection, I don't know if they will work or not.

I could only get The Winged to Badly Injured and the other contingencies seems to work correctly. At least I can see the Fireshield special effect.

So Pol Pyrrus has the sprite of a mage and cast a lot of Contingencies but can actually also Enrage? Pretty impressive combo.

So it seems that the Scroll correctly dispelled anything they had, and prevents them from casting, but Contingencies were still passing through, so they are protected from magical weapons, and have their shields up.

I finally managed to cast a Time Stop with my Simulacrum and went on hitting the salamander, but she turned invisible because of a contingency. I don't think my True Sight will kick in during the Time Stop, so I'm going for another target.

The golem is highly resistant to crushing. I'll have to try something else. Ah shit, no I can't change weapons of the simulacrum. Gonna try another target instead.

I cast another Time Stop through the Simulacrum and send him killing the Winged. He took some damage (is not badly injured), but at least he killed the beast.

I buffed him with a Mirror Image and Stoneskin during the Time Stop to give him more resilience. I send him kicking the salamander ass and got it.

At the same time I summoned some Spectral Bladed to distract the Djinni. Didn't really work as the swords move way to slowly compared to the others.

So I cast another Time Stop and killed the djinni with Crom. I took some fire damage from the Fireshield, but I survived. I ignore the golem for now, he will be very slow to kill as he is immune to most of my damage, but I'm also immune to his damage.

Here we go. Me and my clone went full melee on Joker and killed him a few seconds. Now on to the Golem.

This Scroll of Magic Protection given to me at the very last moment was OP.

Oh so he really is immune to almost everything.

It took a long time, 3 damage per 3 damage, but he finally fell.

What a twist. The bad guy was not the worst, there is another one even worse above him.