Easy Lich fights?

[Silverstar]

I went for maximum carnage difficulty when installing so liches are horribly strong with SCS II, casting wishes, comets, dragon breathes and summoning dark Planetars which insta cast their spells...more, they do have Simulacrums and Project Images and all too! We can now breach them but it is a difficult task, requiring ruby rays and khelben's whips to strip their many spell protections. And if you can't, they shred any party with their mighty magic! Even retreating is no option as they DD and kill all they can see in a Double Lenght time stop+improved alacrity frenzy!

 

However there is a very easy way to deal with any lich:Azuredge! This fantastic weapon is fantastic to insta kill any undead, and liches are no exception! A high lvl fighter, with improved hasted, can throw this like mad and even before the lich was able to cast PfMW. I was able to kill most liches with one hit (they have a very chance to blow their save), because sometimes the liches do not cast PfMW in their initial contingencies and they become very easy targets. One hit, and even if the lich is mirror imaged and stoneskinned, he is as good as dead! It feels cheesy and too easy, which distracts the mod's general intent, for me at least.

 

I reccomend changing the Azuredge's location, it is too easily bought OR even pickpocketed (though one needs a truly impressive pickpocket score to lift Copper Coronet's shop) AND liches should 'always' have PfMW in their initial defenses in the start of a battle...or they die anticlimacticly and too easily in the blink of an eye!

[Arkain]

Uh... don't use it?

[DavidW]

Hi, thanks for this.

 

I'll consider a component for moving Azuredge; meantime, some thoughts:

 

a) all liches should be using PfMW in their initial contingency, so if some aren't (excluding simulacra/projected images), that's a bug. I don't suppose you remember which ones don't?

 

b) There's unfortunately a very short (split-second) delay between liches (or any mages) going hostile and their buffs coming in. I can't do much about this (I've tried various things) - I think it's just the engine queuing stuff up. I tend to wait that split second before attacking, but of course that can break immersion.

[PetrusOctavianus]

b) There's unfortunately a very short (split-second) delay between liches (or any mages) going hostile and their buffs coming in. I can't do much about this (I've tried various things) - I think it's just the engine queuing stuff up. I tend to wait that split second before attacking, but of course that can break immersion.

 

The whole idea behind the buffing is that the enemies has *already* cast them before meeting the player, right?

So it certainly makes sense to wait untill the buffs come up to directly attack the enemy. At least that's what I do...

[Galactygon]

b) There's unfortunately a very short (split-second) delay between liches (or any mages) going hostile and their buffs coming in. I can't do much about this (I've tried various things) - I think it's just the engine queuing stuff up. I tend to wait that split second before attacking, but of course that can break immersion.

 

For some spellcasters, most notably Irenicus, you could try and embed their usual chain contingency block in their .dlg file, so they are fired before you hit the space bar.

 

-Galactygon

[DavidW]

b) There's unfortunately a very short (split-second) delay between liches (or any mages) going hostile and their buffs coming in. I can't do much about this (I've tried various things) - I think it's just the engine queuing stuff up. I tend to wait that split second before attacking, but of course that can break immersion.

 

For some spellcasters, most notably Irenicus, you could try and embed their usual chain contingency block in their .dlg file, so they are fired before you hit the space bar.

 

-Galactygon

That does work, and at one point I did it in SCS. But it's a complete pain to automate and update.

[Silverstar]

One of them may be Deirexx lich in Ust Natha..I am not sure though. I killed the lich in the sewers before he had to raise his contingency. My bad, will not do it again. (promise to myself!)

 

I think I had a few screenshots of these incidents, I will take a look this night and give you more precise information.

 

Simulacrums and other illusions do cast PfMW at the start of the combat, though I have seen regular liches forgetting to recast it for a few seconds, and I ended up killing them in those split seconds without bringing down their defenses at all...or I am playing so good that I do not give them the chance to renew PfMW, he he! (which is a joke, even though I am a very experienced player, those super liches tend to kill at least a few party members sometimes...Dark Planetars are very deadly too, and I know most of my party would be chunked if not SCSII's that component which prevents such annoyances.) (As a side note, I like Dark Planetars giving out XP when properly killed though, they are very deadly and are really worth 20K XP IMHO)

[Galactygon]

That does work, and at one point I did it in SCS. But it's a complete pain to automate and update.

 

I would only worry about it in a few non-generic fights. Could your SSL handle .d files?

 

-Galactygon

[DavidW]

That does work, and at one point I did it in SCS. But it's a complete pain to automate and update.

 

I would only worry about it in a few non-generic fights. Could your SSL handle .d files?

 

-Galactygon

well, indirectly... SSL could output a BAF file, and then WEIDU could pick it up and insert it into a d file and compile it.