BG2's "Ascension" is a troll mod

[Bester]

There is no way to beat Irenicus with this mod.

The fight now has two parts.

First part:
You have Irenicus:
- Self-casts protection from magical weapons, some spell protections, and whenever you try to dispell it from him, he instantly dimension-doors away. He then comes back and casts spells that do not exist in BG2, such as an artillery of Flame Arrows (it's a spam of 10 arrows that happens within one second). He will harass you with other things too, like Fingers of Death, and he will dispell you.
- A Black Dragon that will drain levels. Easy to deal with by casting protection from negative energy and dispelling his "Protection from Magical Weapons".
- Sarevok. He's undispellable, can't be targeted with spells, will sometimes be immune to everything.
- A flying Sword. It's immune to everything except magic missiles. But if you magic missile it, it will chase your mage (it's under constant improved haste) and kill the mage, even if your mage has Magic Weapons protection (immune to +5)!.. How?
- An elder Beholder. Easy to deal with.

So by chain-casting time stops and depleting all my resources, I was actually able to beat these guys.

Part 2:
And then a cutscene plays and Irenicus says "you didn't think this was going to be that easy?" and a new fight starts. We got:
- Some 4 Glabrezu-type demons with protections all over themselves. At this point I couldn't bother, I just CTRL+Y'ed them all.
- Irenicus turns into Slayer, stops time and starts hitting you for 60 hp per hit with 6 or 7 attacks per round. He's got so many layers of protection that he can't be killed with CTRL+Y, believe it or not. I'm not kidding.

Just for fun, I decided to play this again. I pushed through phase 1 with CTLR+Y and came in fresh for phase 2. I immediately killed all demons with CTRL+Y and so it was just my party against Slayer.

1- He can't be dispelled, I tried it all. The only way to dispell him is to CTRL+R him.
2- He's unbeatable even with a rested party.

How's he supposed to be beaten as a PHASE 2?

No. My only conclusion is that this mod is supposed to TROLL you. Someone slipped some extra lines of code somewhere during its 20+ years of development and now nobody can figure out that it's a prank.

 

[Fedora Master]

BG2 mods are 95% distilled autism and 5% fetish shit.

 

[Corvinus]

There is no way to beat Irenicus with this mod.

The fight now has two parts.

First part:
You have Irenicus:
- Self-casts protection from magical weapons, some spell protections, and whenever you try to dispell it from him, he instantly dimension-doors away. He then comes back and casts spells that do not exist in BG2, such as an artillery of Flame Arrows (it's a spam of 10 arrows that happens within one second). He will harass you with other things too, like Fingers of Death, and he will dispell you.
- A Black Dragon that will drain levels. Easy to deal with by casting protection from negative energy and dispelling his "Protection from Magical Weapons".
- Sarevok. He's undispellable, can't be targeted with spells, will sometimes be immune to everything.
- A flying Sword. It's immune to everything except magic missiles. But if you magic missile it, it will chase your mage (it's under constant improved haste) and kill the mage, even if your mage has Magic Weapons protection (immune to +5)!.. How?
- An elder Beholder. Easy to deal with.

So by chain-casting time stops and depleting all my resources, I was actually able to beat these guys.

Part 2:
And then a cutscene plays and Irenicus says "you didn't think this was going to be that easy?" and a new fight starts. We got:
- Some 4 Glabrezu-type demons with protections all over themselves. At this point I couldn't bother, I just CTRL+Y'ed them all.
- Irenicus turns into Slayer, stops time and starts hitting you for 60 hp per hit with 6 or 7 attacks per round. He's got so many layers of protection that he can't be killed with CTRL+Y, believe it or not. I'm not kidding.

Just for fun, I decided to play this again. I pushed through phase 1 with CTLR+Y and came in fresh for phase 2. I immediately killed all demons with CTRL+Y and so it was just my party against Slayer.

1- He can't be dispelled, I tried it all. The only way to dispell him is to CTRL+R him.
2- He's unbeatable even with a rested party.

How's he supposed to be beaten as a PHASE 2?

No. My only conclusion is that this mod is supposed to TROLL you. Someone slipped some extra lines of code somewhere during its 20+ years of development and now nobody can figure out that it's a prank.

Sounds ridiculously difficult, but surely there must be some way of beating him...?

 

[King Crispy]

The only winning move is not to play.

 

[JDR13]

Did you try the Holy Hand Grenade?

 

[Matalarata]

Equip the ring.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Git gud

 

[Chippy]

I think I've got the version that was updated by weimer somewhere. I never did find the original one - that was released by David Gaider?. Looking back over the past 20 years or so, I think the modding scene for BG is like a seive where the smallest, most petty minds passed through and settled on the bottom (and then went on to work for Beamdog) and playing them often makes me feel like the bottom feeder.

The content mods are the worst, and they all seem to have this fetish in common where there's 99% immunity to everything, but just that one fucking spell that gets through. I played a mod once where this party was immune to every type of damage and status effect, and the only way (actually looked it up on the forum) was to cheese cast Incindiery Cloud from outside of their sight range and wait as they suffered 1 dam per round for however much HP they had. Before they initiated dialogue. So take advantage of the ai because they didn't know you were there - that was the only way to kill them - and the modder had put dialogue in just to piss you off.

But yeah Bester; wait till you get to the TOB final fight with Ascension, it's even worse than the Irenicus fight, and the Irenicus version that I played actually scripted him removing your equiptment.

Edit: I believe the Harm spell was my friend.

 

[octavius]

Looking back over the past 20 years or so, I think the modding scene for BG is like a seive where the smallest, most petty minds passed through and settled on the bottom (and then went on to work for Beamdog) and playing them often makes me feel like the bottom feeder.

That was beautiful.

 

[Corvinus]

So what kind of party composition would one need to destroy these kind of encounters?

I have only made it to the end fight of BG2 (but never actually beaten it; a HDD error made me lose my saves). Also, never tried any modifications for BG2.

 

[octavius]

If you can get Korgan, Edwin and Keldorn in the same party you have half the Dream Team.
Anomen and Arie can also be very powerful. Jaheira too.
Viconia has too low HP for my taste; she was always the first one to croak despite her high MAR when I had her in my party (but maybe I didn't use her optimally).

And I always bring Jan for comic relief.

 

[Chippy]

So what kind of party composition would one need to destroy these kind of encounters?

I have only made it to the end fight of BG2 (but never actually beaten it; a HDD error made me lose my saves). Also, never tried any modifications for BG2.

From memory (about 15 years ago) it isn't just the party composition, but the specific spells as well. Or just depending on how retarded the modder is. That one I was talking about had a fighter that was immune to all physical damage, and had 10APR - so by the time you found that out, you were in trouble.

If I remember well, the final fight in Ascension was about having as many Harm spells memorized as possible, and then timing it just right. What these powergaming retards don't seem to get is that not everyone wants the powergaming experience. I did it just for the Fuck U factor, but the roleplaying part of me wanted

Spoiler

Sarevok

to go toe-to-toe with

Spoiler

Yaga-Shura

and I think it was pretty much impossible no matter how buffed he was.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

troll

More likely just little to no playtesting and nobody played that far. Game design is hard

 

[Silly Germans]

Hm, i did the fight and it was one of the harder ones but certainly doable.
I used Ascension and a bunch of tweak packs/ unfinished business stuff. I did Keepers Watch
beforehand so i was at a pretty high level already. I also finished BG1 with the same character
beforehand so i had all tomes that increase stats. I have replayed it many times but never with
the Beam Dog characters, so i gave them a try. My party was

Main Char Fighter lvl (17) / Mage lvl (16)
Korgan lvl (26)
Dorn lvl (23)
Hexxat (31)
Viconia (28)
Edwin (22)

All somewhere between 4.600.000 - 5.000.000 EXP

 

[Poseidon00]

Git gud scrub

 

[Ramnozack]

Did you try to convince comrade Irenicus to redistribute some of his power to those less fortunate than he?

 

[Black_Willow]

l2p

 

[Silly Germans]

The very last fight in ToB with Ascension, is harder than Irenicus.
Especially once Melissan joins the fray, after you killed some of the
other Bhaalspawn.

 

[Terra]

I liked Ascension but that fight was indeed like taking a warhammer to the face. even with a mini army of summons and Bodhi it took fuck knows how many reloads to win.

 

[Yosharian]

Try playing Ascension with SCS. What a fucking nightmare. I actually did have to console-kill some of the enemies in the last phase because I just ran out of fucking magic missiles to take down those godamn swords. But it's definitely possible to win. Just very, very, very difficult.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Spellstrike, Pierce Shield, Ruby Ray of Reversal, Khelben’s Warding Whip, and more. If Irenicus is not targetable, it’s because he’s using greater invisibility and Spell Immunity: Divination. Also, he is not immune to dispel or turn magic, but you better be doing it with a very high level caster. When he’s striking you with Flaming Arrow, it’s multiple casts from a sequencer. Very deadly, but when you’re literally battling for an Abyssal Throne, you should be immune to fire or warded against Lvl3 spells in some way. The only spell I can think of that he has which is not available to the player is a combo Fire/Cold Shield. If you’re using SCS, he’s definitely tough, but plays entirely by the rules. His slayer form can be a bitch, but see above. You’ll also want to be immune to cold.

The Shadow Dragon is actually one of the weakest dragons, but encountered earliest. The level drain is rough if you’re unfamiliar with what a shadow dragon can do. I killed him by lowering his saves/resist and petrifying him with a Chromatic Orb. I was a bit under leveled for the fight, and it was grizzly. The victory was awesome. You’re going to want kill it with magic. Melee will be a challenge.

Mordenkiden’s Sword can be dispelled, killed with death spell, death fog, mazed, or with Horrid Wilting and Magic Missile.

When you fight The Five simultaneously, there are some important notes. Bhodi I can be brought to your side if you haven’t teamed up with Balthazar. I suggest you opt for Balthazar. Irenicus is a pain, but the real threat is Illasera. She has Arrows of Dispelling which will wreck your day. Kill her first, Jon Irenicus second. Also, Yaga Shura cannot be killed until the other Five are dead, I believe. His immunities will diminish proportionately as each of them are slain, but he is always vulnerable to cold.

Sarevok should be small potatoes for you now. Just have one of your fighter chop him up. He’s not immune to anything, and his resistances can be peeled off like any other foe.

Elder Beholders and Hive Mother’s are some of the most significant threats in the game. Spell Reflection, Spell Trap, and gated demons are going to be your best friends here. Power World Blind and Glitterdust are also very valuable. With SCS, their AI is outstanding, so you;re going to ha e to throw everything you’ve got at them. Bows + Whirlwind are great, but here’s a pro-tip. Deathblow and Greater Deathblow with instantly killed Beholders and many other monsters. Not sure if it works on Elders or Hive Mother’s, but It’s worth having.


JUST MADE SURE THAT YOU ARE USING STRATEGEMS, NOT TACTICS. Tactics is the absolute worst and makes exploits and cheese mandatory. If your game is truely that awful, verify that you do not have the “tactics” mod installed.

 

[Sharpedge]

If I look hard enough I can probably find solo videos for ascension fights. Here is a solo of Irenicus with tactics (not ascension, but one probably exists) for example:

Spoiler

But yeah, mods which have increasing their difficulty as one of their primary objectives are definitely not aimed at everyone. I found a Mellisan solo insane ascension quite quickly, but it was with cheesing skull traps so I don't really count it.

 

[Delterius]

just wild magic a cow at people, good god

 

[Melcar]

I don't remember Irenicus fights (any of them) being particularly difficult with Ascension. Granted the last time I played the mod was like 6 years ago. The only fight(s) I had difficulty with in my first Ascension run was the final TOB encounter. SCS is just pure cheese, but thankfully it can be configured.

 

[Bester]

Spellstrike, Pierce Shield, Ruby Ray of Reversal, Khelben’s Warding Whip, and more.

He dimension-doors away every 5 seconds. Very hard to catch with any spell that's not instant.

If Irenicus is not targetable, it’s because he’s using greater invisibility and Spell Immunity: Divination.

So how do you dispell that?

When he’s striking you with Flaming Arrow, it’s multiple casts from a sequencer. Very deadly, but when you’re literally battling for an Abyssal Throne, you should be immune to fire or warded against Lvl3 spells in some way.

He will dispell you. He will target random people with it, so you can't save yourself with rings.

And I did win that fight. It's the fight after this one, the second phase, that's impossible to me. I arrive to phase 2 absolutely wrecked, and am supposed to defeat 4 buffed demons and slayer that stops time and wrecks everyone. I wonder how much cold resistance would help. Probably not much.