Beholder/Elder orb feedback

[Guest guest]

I'm currently stuck on one of the hell trials; the fear one, where there is a chest and some beholders/gauths/elder orb in two separate corridors.

 

My battles are all going the same way; I take out most/all the gauths and beholders, and then am getting to work on the elder orb when suddenly the game ends. I don't know what it is, but i read in the readme you don't make them use disintegrate so maybe some sort of finger of death (actually, death ray i think...now that i recall seeing it in the combat log on other characters) is doing it. All I can say is, whatever it is, it is really cheesy, and essentially the same end result as disintegrate.

 

Now, I don't particularly pre buff so i don't feel like casting death ward on my main before i go in (would that even work? they'll just dispel it with one of their rays, which btw come at a rate of knots, so it'll be gone as soon as it comes) just to avoid that.

 

I just had it happen again after casting greater restoration and putting my protagonist to his full 156 hp and then immediately the game is on that quit/load screen we all hate.

 

I'd like it if at the very least the beholders didn't cast insta-death spells on the main character; I do not mind any of the other characters dying (in fact, i'm regularly losing at least 2 party members each time on this fight - too little space!); rods of ressurection and such spells were made for a reason after all, but this is about to be my 6th or so attempt coming up...

 

I hope you can at least consider such a change, since it really is quite unsatisfying; what I do love (and to end on a positive note), however, is the elder orb, or at least one of the beholders, stripping my cloak of mirroring. I'll admit i would normally use just the main character with that cloak to clear all beholder kin, but now I HAVE to use the party since they're all just as susceptible to the enemy, at least eventually! The cloak doesn't change my game into solo mode for beholder encounters anymore, so well done on that.

 

One last thing; what stalk/ability is it that causes casting failure? I seem to be getting that too. Also (and now not really directly SCSII related), is there a way to know how much casting failure you have, i.e. 50%, 100% etc? There's only that portrait icon with the name 'casting failure', seems to be 100% with this one but I wish I knew for sure.

[DrAzTiK]

Another pb in my game about elder orb :

 

In my game, elder orb use Simulacrum whereas I have installed "Enemy mages use Simulacrum and Project Image spells" component. Is is normal ?

[Jarno Mikkola]

One last thing; what stalk/ability is it that causes casting failure? I seem to be getting that too. Also (and now not really directly SCSII related), is there a way to know how much casting failure you have, i.e. 50%, 100% etc? There's only that portrait icon with the name 'casting failure', seems to be 100% with this one but I wish I knew for sure.

It's the primary Beholder Anti-magical eye stalk. And it should set the casting failure to 100% for the duration, though it should be really short though.

 

Another pb in my game about elder orb :

In my game, elder orb use Simulacrum whereas I have installed "Enemy mages use Simulacrum and Project Image spells" component. Is is normal ?

Well, the Elder Orb is classified as Mage, so it's allowed...

[DavidW]

My battles are all going the same way; I take out most/all the gauths and beholders, and then am getting to work on the elder orb when suddenly the game ends. I don't know what it is, but i read in the readme you don't make them use disintegrate so maybe some sort of finger of death (actually, death ray i think...now that i recall seeing it in the combat log on other characters) is doing it.

 

Could be finger of death; could be flesh to stone.

 

All I can say is, whatever it is, it is really cheesy,

 

After four years of publishing mods for this game, I still don't know what people mean by "cheesy". More accurately: I think they mean a vast number of things, including

- "this is exploiting a bug"

- "this is exploiting something the designers didn't intend"

- "you can't do this in PnP"

- "the enemy aren't playing by the same rules as me"

- "this is too difficult for me"

= "I don't like this"

 

and essentially the same end result as disintegrate.

I don't block disintegrate to prevent reloads; I block it because it too often means that you win the battle but still have to reload.

 

 

Now, I don't particularly pre buff so i don't feel like casting death ward on my main before i go in (would that even work? they'll just dispel it with one of their rays, which btw come at a rate of knots, so it'll be gone as soon as it comes) just to avoid that.

There's only so much I can do to accommodate "not feeling like" doing something tactically advantageous. You're right, though, that keeping the protagonist's buffs running is hard work. But that's just part of fighting beholders.

 

I'd like it if at the very least the beholders didn't cast insta-death spells on the main character; I do not mind any of the other characters dying (in fact, i'm regularly losing at least 2 party members each time on this fight - too little space!); rods of ressurection and such spells were made for a reason after all, but this is about to be my 6th or so attempt coming up...

 

If I get around to it and it doesn't affect performance, I'll put in a console option to enable this. I won't make it part of the core install because ultimately, why shouldn't beholders target the main character?

 

 

what I do love (and to end on a positive note), however, is the elder orb, or at least one of the beholders, stripping my cloak of mirroring. I'll admit i would normally use just the main character with that cloak to clear all beholder kin, but now I HAVE to use the party since they're all just as susceptible to the enemy, at least eventually! The cloak doesn't change my game into solo mode for beholder encounters anymore, so well done on that.

 

One last thing; what stalk/ability is it that causes casting failure? I seem to be getting that too. Also (and now not really directly SCSII related), is there a way to know how much casting failure you have, i.e. 50%, 100% etc? There's only that portrait icon with the name 'casting failure', seems to be 100% with this one but I wish I knew for sure.

 

The antimagic ray. (You're right: this is vanilla-game behaviour, not altered by SCSII.)

Another pb in my game about elder orb :

 

In my game, elder orb use Simulacrum whereas I have installed "Enemy mages use Simulacrum and Project Image spells" component. Is is normal ?

 

Yep.

 

(I'm a bit confused by your question: elder orbs are mages, so if you've installed that component, shouldn't you expect elder orbs to use Simulacrum? But actually, for historical reasons concerning the order in which I wrote the mod, beholders use simulacra independent of that option. I should probably change this.)

[DrAzTiK]

I mean I have installed the component that forbid ennemy mages to use Simulacrum and Project Image and Beholders still use simulacrum yes ^^

[Salk]

(...beholders use simulacra independent of that option. I should probably change this.)

 

I'd more than welcome that change, DavidW!

 

By the way, if you don't mind saying, have you an ETA on SCS II?

[DavidW]

(...beholders use simulacra independent of that option. I should probably change this.)

 

I'd more than welcome that change, DavidW!

 

By the way, if you don't mind saying, have you an ETA on SCS II?

 

A couple of weeks. (But my ETAs are totally unreliable, which is why I don't advertise them much.)

[DarkWon]

There's only so much I can do to accommodate "not feeling like" doing something tactically advantageous. You're right, though, that keeping the protagonist's buffs running is hard work. But that's just part of fighting beholders.

 

Don't you mean impossible?! what can protect against AM ray. To my knowledge nothing can...spelltrap maybe?

[Sayne]

I mean, Beholders are meant to be crazy tough, even in the Vanilla game... if you don't have a Shield of Balduran or a Cloak of Mirroring.

 

My strategy is to unload my Sorcerer's entire compliment on them with Timestop + Improved Alacrity (once I'm leveled up enough to have those, obviously) and then a Greater Malison to hopefully make them save less. Very few Beholders survive 6 Horrid Wiltings... Elder Orbs still manage to though (protection from magic energy) and I have to beat them down with a horde of Skeleton Warriors (using Project image to get around the 5 pets limit).

 

By the way DavidW, the Beholder Dungeon in the Underdark (with Smarter Beholders and Improved Beholder Hive) was obscene. When I saw that there were two Elder Orbs down in the bottom right corner, I about cried. That one took me a while...

[Guest Guest]

I mean, Beholders are meant to be crazy tough, even in the Vanilla game... if you don't have a Shield of Balduran or a Cloak of Mirroring.

 

My strategy is to unload my Sorcerer's entire compliment on them with Timestop + Improved Alacrity (once I'm leveled up enough to have those, obviously) and then a Greater Malison to hopefully make them save less. Very few Beholders survive 6 Horrid Wiltings... Elder Orbs still manage to though (protection from magic energy) and I have to beat them down with a horde of Skeleton Warriors (using Project image to get around the 5 pets limit).

 

By the way DavidW, the Beholder Dungeon in the Underdark (with Smarter Beholders and Improved Beholder Hive) was obscene. When I saw that there were two Elder Orbs down in the bottom right corner, I about cried. That one took me a while...

 

If you are willing to spend 2 time stops to kill an elder orb, you should just use the first one to strip their spell protections, the second one to Breach, and Horrid Wilt them.

 

If you cast the Breach while standing next to the orb, and then cast HW some 10 yards behind the orb, Protection from Magic Energy should get stripped before the HW lands.