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Nah, Molten Orb does (because it's coded as a Bomb I guess) but Rays don't, which is why Ember gets her Blackened malus on Molten Orbs but not Snowball or Scorching Rays.
Or you could figure out how to fight Shadows. I'll have to test whether Mage Armor works against them (it is supposed to) but the game does give you many tools to boost touch AC and/or own undead.
Average Manatee How did you survive the final boss's aura? He completely wrecked me with his stun aura. Otherwise, he seemed to be an enjoyable boss, unlike the shadow dragon.
Interesting finding: Mythic Inspiration (bard/skald songs give +1 +1 per 3 mythic levels) actually gives double that for Court Poets, so up to 6 + 8 = +14 to int and cha. That's... pretty damn impressive. Not just for the obvious Nenio/Ember spell spam, but also with Seelah able to convert that to +7 AB with mark of justice, Scaled Fist getting +7 AC, Friend to animals giving all pets +7 saves. And you can wear ring of triumphant advance to double that. Imagine Seelah with +28 Cha or Nenio with +28 Int lmao wtf. Glad I held out on my planned court poet-focused game till this update.
EDIT: Imagine sword saint 19/scaled fist 1. Court poet can give that a casual +28 AC
Nah, Molten Orb does (because it's coded as a Bomb I guess) but Rays don't, which is why Ember gets her blackened malus on Molten Orbs but not Snowball or Scorching Rays.
I can say that I specifically tested Snowball and it works with the item I posted. My *guess* is that ranged weapons = everything ranged, but all weapons = everything weapons but no non-weapons. I can't recall exactly where I noticed this before but I definitely recall a few things following this formula.
Or you could figure out how to fight Shadows. I'll have to test whether Mage Armor works against them (it is supposed to) but the game does give you many tools to boost touch AC and/or own undead.
It's not so much that they hit me often. But the dungeon is long without many rests to refresh buffs, and they either roll high eventually or spawn behind you and go for someone flimsy. The fact that you really can't see shit in this dungeon also makes it difficult.
Average Manatee How did you survive the final boss's aura? He completely wrecked me with his stun aura. Otherwise, he seemed to be an enjoyable boss, unlike the shadow dragon.
I'll be honest, I didn't even know he had that and I'm not getting stunned so I must be protected some how. Do you know exactly what the effect is called? I can't tell what it is on his stat card.
I'll be honest, I didn't even know he had that and I'm not getting stunned so I must be protected some how. Do you know exactly what the effect is called? I can't tell what it is on his stat card.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I think what happens is he casts it but interrupts the cast with his teleport to a corner? If it was actually hitting me it'd show some notification of being immune to stun or w/e, right? This keeps happening consistently to me, what I'm doing is staying on real time and running to the corner he teleports to.
From there I almost managed to kill him in a single round:
Playing it over a few times, he seems to either use Circle of Death or his ice breath next. Circle of Death there's no good counter except to spam dozens of summons as bait (to be immune, give someone the hat that makes them undead and someone else the necklace that prevents death once per day). For his ice breath you should be have enough damage reduction that it does nothing.
No the DLC can be standalone. In fact I checked a bit and you may be stronger if you create a new character. Reasons:
-I ended Ashes with about ~5.5 levels, and I don't think I missed anything significant (certainly not enough to be level 6 by the end). If you create a new character your party starts at level ~6.25.
-New characters start with 15k gold. I ended Ashes with 1,159 gold. You start at a merchant ready to buy stuff and almost nothing in Ashes was good, you max out at a few generic +1 weapons. The only unique item I had on me was a Ring of Sharp Strike on Rekarth (-1 to enemy attack rolls for a round when you shoot them). Yeah, nothing important missed.
-The one drawback is in leveling. First you get the default mercs from TtT (Cleric, Tower Shield Specialist, Slayer). You can buy new mercs for 2.5k a pop though so its not too bad and you're still ahead on gold. Also remember that you'll be forced to drop 1 merc anyway about 20 mins into the DLC. Secondly Rekarth and Sendri will start at level 6. Respecs are free, but if you're sticking to a difficulty that doesn't allow them you'll have to deal with their default builds. Frankly they are built pretty well though so no big deal.
Also:
Depending on what you picked (leave Sendri or follow him) at the end of Ashes or the beginning of your imported character, he can have an extra shard. If you follow him you have to fight a rather easy boss and get your second shard (Sendri starts with one). But if you leave Sendri you catch up with him later and he's already killed the boss. And he has THREE shards, all specialized in cold damage nuking. Now if only there were great cold spells...
On the boss of the area and he has a cold aura which apparently ignores cold resistance, so you have to kill him in ~2 turns after he uses it on unfair. 514 health 42 AC. Sorry but that's just anti-player bullshit.
I ended Ashes with about ~5.5 levels, and I don't think I missed anything significant (certainly not enough to be level 6 by the end). If you create a new character your party starts at level ~6.25.
- This is really a departure from Through the Ashes. I was expecting slightly more combat focus but still a lot of puzzles. It's instead an almost complete dungeon crawl, with a few puzzles for optional items. Which is better.
- Ice dungeon was OK. A bit light on combat amount and short.
- Mage Tower was great. Lots of stuff, interesting area. Boss fight was notable tactically since there's stuff all around you.
- Nature area was OK but a bit simple compared to the mage tower. At this point tough enemies started dying in 2-3 turns from dimension strike charge w/ 2x fortune so I'm not really sure what the boss does.
- Shadow dungeon was awful. Couldn't see shit, map wasn't helpful, annoying to navigate, annoying enemies that aren't really deadly and can barely hit you but level drain/attribute damage you in an area with limited resting and no way to retreat for consumables. I guess I should have figured out to bring restoration items since it tells you you're going to the shadow realm but... ehh still annoying. Also, wtf no boss? Lame!
- Final boss was actually a joke because he deals cold damage that doesn't pierce resistances, so keeping protection from energy up meant a big fat 0 damage dealt every turn. Which leads me to think that the ice dungeon boss was definitely bugged because there's no reason he should pierce resistance but the final demon lord can't.
- Shard powers are actually fairly cool. They do kind of pidgeonhole you (there's roughly 3 for melee, 3 for ranged, 3 for spellcasters, and a bunch of kind of random crap). But since you have to choose who gets the shard its a lot more tactical than mythic levels where everyone just picks the same 2 or 3 things together. It's really annoying that the mercs can't take it though given how narrow the companions' builds are.
Overall, decent but I really don't think it has any replayability because of the last dungeon being so bad and 3 required companions which really kills playing with builds. Especially when shards can only go on 1 of your created characters.
Will have to see what this does to the main campaign but I don't think I'll have time to replay it for a while with the holidays coming up. It'd be cool if the shard powers also work there, although it'd be extremely overpowered (maybe it'd be fine if they could be taken instead of a mythic ability?). Will also be interesting to see if any of the new equipment makes its way there since there's some cool stuff:
Amulet with +2 alchemical bonus to intelligence and more bombs per day
+2 falchion that gets an extra attack if it crits (once per round)
Pearls of power.
Hat that increases necromancy DCs by 2 and makes you undead (HP dependent on charisma, healed by negative energy).
Leather armor that gives +2 luck bonus to dexterity
Greatsword that throws out 6d6 fireballs on every crit.
Neckless that prevents death once per day, restoring 50 HP and making all nearby enemies pass a will 26 DC check or be knocked prone
And a bunch of intteresting items at the merchants which I couldn't afford.
In that list I see items already in the main campaign, anyway no they can't be imported.
But pearls of powers should have been added to the main campaign even without having to beat the DLC
If you beat a miniboss in the DLC on core or above you can get some subpar items in chapter V but none of that list.
I ended Ashes with about ~5.5 levels, and I don't think I missed anything significant (certainly not enough to be level 6 by the end). If you create a new character your party starts at level ~6.25.
"Only active companions receive experience" is forced to be off for TtA.
"Only skill user receives skill check experience" might be able to give a bit for your main if you really make a skill monkey, but the rest of the party will be behind.
I know the DLC often gives accomplishment-based XP for bypassing enemies and I probably missed a handful of those, but they are only a few hundred XP usually and you'd need like 5000 XP to make up the difference.
In that list I see items already in the main campaign, anyway no they can't be imported.
But pearls of powers should have been added to the main campaign even without having to beat the DLC
If you beat a miniboss in the DLC on core or above you can get some subpar items in chapter V but none of that list.
Yeah I don't recall all the minor items in the main campaign and I'm not gonna look them up to see what's actually new. If the DLC only affects the campaign in chapter 5 then its kind of too late to matter anyway, who makes it to chapter 5 and isn't wrecking things by then?
No the DLC can be standalone. In fact I checked a bit and you may be stronger if you create a new character. Reasons:
-I ended Ashes with about ~5.5 levels, and I don't think I missed anything significant (certainly not enough to be level 6 by the end). If you create a new character your party starts at level ~6.25.
-New characters start with 15k gold. I ended Ashes with 1,159 gold. You start at a merchant ready to buy stuff and almost nothing in Ashes was good, you max out at a few generic +1 weapons. The only unique item I had on me was a Ring of Sharp Strike on Rekarth (-1 to enemy attack rolls for a round when you shoot them). Yeah, nothing important missed.
-The one drawback is in leveling. First you get the default mercs from TtT (Cleric, Tower Shield Specialist, Slayer). You can buy new mercs for 2.5k a pop though so its not too bad and you're still ahead on gold. Also remember that you'll be forced to drop 1 merc anyway about 20 mins into the DLC. Secondly Rekarth and Sendri will start at level 6. Respecs are free, but if you're sticking to a difficulty that doesn't allow them you'll have to deal with their default builds. Frankly they are built pretty well though so no big deal.
Also:
Depending on what you picked (leave Sendri or follow him) at the end of Ashes or the beginning of your imported character, he can have an extra shard. If you follow him you have to fight a rather easy boss and get your second shard (Sendri starts with one). But if you leave Sendri you catch up with him later and he's already killed the boss. And he has THREE shards, all specialized in cold damage nuking. Now if only there were great cold spells...
No the DLC can be standalone. In fact I checked a bit and you may be stronger if you create a new character. Reasons:
-I ended Ashes with about ~5.5 levels, and I don't think I missed anything significant (certainly not enough to be level 6 by the end). If you create a new character your party starts at level ~6.25.
-New characters start with 15k gold. I ended Ashes with 1,159 gold. You start at a merchant ready to buy stuff and almost nothing in Ashes was good, you max out at a few generic +1 weapons. The only unique item I had on me was a Ring of Sharp Strike on Rekarth (-1 to enemy attack rolls for a round when you shoot them). Yeah, nothing important missed.
-The one drawback is in leveling. First you get the default mercs from TtT (Cleric, Tower Shield Specialist, Slayer). You can buy new mercs for 2.5k a pop though so its not too bad and you're still ahead on gold. Also remember that you'll be forced to drop 1 merc anyway about 20 mins into the DLC. Secondly Rekarth and Sendri will start at level 6. Respecs are free, but if you're sticking to a difficulty that doesn't allow them you'll have to deal with their default builds. Frankly they are built pretty well though so no big deal.
Also:
Depending on what you picked (leave Sendri or follow him) at the end of Ashes or the beginning of your imported character, he can have an extra shard. If you follow him you have to fight a rather easy boss and get your second shard (Sendri starts with one). But if you leave Sendri you catch up with him later and he's already killed the boss. And he has THREE shards, all specialized in cold damage nuking. Now if only there were great cold spells...
You have to scroll down on main menu to reveal Lord of Nothing, though there was plenty of room to not need a scroll bar and little indication there even is one lol.
You know I generally enjoy the challenge of playing with precon companions and getting the most out of unorthodox set-ups I wouldn’t choose myself, like a Cleric who absolutely, positively has no business attacking with anything and doesn’t even have the DEX to tank (she’s pretty good at Channeling), but WTF with the skill ranks?
They’re all in skills they suck at with no ranks in skills their classes and set-up are there to be good at.
Cleric has 18 fucking CHR and Persuasion as Class Skill. No ranks? Seeker Sorc gets scaling bonus to Trickery, that the point of the class. No ranks?
It just excruciatingly ghey that the shitty low-level casters can’t even use Demoralize because despite having 18+ CHR and Persuasion as a Class Skill they have no ranks.
And then you meet first companion and of course it’s one of their favorite shitty builds (ranged Bard) but even *it* doesn’t have Persuasion because INT-based (which O/W is vry cool with Bardic Knowledge).
It’s like they know half their playerbase just voltrons MC while rest of party picks their noses so they DGAF.
So any of the new archetypes actually interesting or is it just same old shit of adding stuff from one class to another class and calling it new gameplay.
So any of the new archetypes actually interesting or is it just same old shit of adding stuff from one class to another class and calling it new gameplay.
The rest are just kind of edgy variations of existing archetypes it seems like. I guess Shadow Wiz gets the minigame of fighting its own summon. Could generate marginal EXP with that.
I was working on respeccing the companions and noticed that each of them have a liitle something extra vs Shadows.
Dorf is a Barrow Dwarf that gives bonuses vs undead
Half-orc TSS gets (big) Shield Bonus to Touch AC at lvl 11
Halfling Cleric is set-up to Channel the fuck out of Undead with Sun Domain, extra Channel, and 18 CHR. Sun Nimbus even hoses Undead when not Channeling and Shadows are not immune to Blind.
Using respec mod:
I’ll probably change Dorf to a Heavy Class without Armor Training to take advantage of his Racial (and tank Giants with him). Need plan B vs Shadows in that case. Barrow bonus isn’t really enough to tank them anyway.
Half-Orc strongest feature is probably free weapon profs? Maybe make her the Slaya with Double Axe.
Halfling gets Ecclesitheurge to give her something to do while not Channeling. Though maybe just Dazzling Display would be enough once she gets Persuasion Ranks. Domains are fine.
Gnome Seeker comes with Shard built in though can change which one with Respec. Definitely getting Trickery ranks to allow Tiefling to drop Rogue. Maybe Illusion/Shadow spells with Gnome racial?
Reformed Fiend Cleaver is good Tiefling class.
Probably want to run the INT Bard though ranged Bard isn’t very good. Not sure what to do with her, the archetype loses Bardic Knowledge lol.
That leaves MC as probably a Hunter to cover Druid/Ranger buffs. Can get Erastil’s Blessing for WIS to hit.
What’s the deal with the 15 point buy on MC though?
