The Swords of Never in chp 1 blacklake tomb Spoiler

[Legacy_Calgacus]

               The toughest battle in chapter 1 and it drove me nuts so I drank a potion of invisibility and rushed in looted the place and rushed out. Seems like cheating for a number of reasons but other methods I know of seem cheesy too - like picking the swords off one by one by turning my party invisible and running behind the stairs or using the stone portal to teleport in and out during the battle to heal up.

So I opened the mod in the toolset to see if there was a special way I should have used - you know an attack form of some sort that would have make it easier to beat them.  Nope.  none.  In fact it turns out that the swords are weilded byb invisble men - not undead or constructs or ghosts - but regular men who are level 8 fighters with all the greatsword feats a  level 8 fighter could ask for and the greatswords themselves deal a bonus d6 of elemental damage of various types.  So you are expected to battle 4 level 8 fighters with magic great swords.

My character at the end of chapter 1 is only level 6 (4 barb, 1 sorc, 1 RDD) and my henchman is only a level 5 barb.    We have regular gear but no uber gear like the greater swordsmans belt.  So any way to beat the swords is going to be cheesy since they are way too powerful and also because they are weilded by men suseptible to mind spells and damage types you might not think of using against ghosts or magic self  weilding iron swords eg why does my wooden club damage them at all? or a monks fists?

So anyway, don't feel bad if you can't beat them fairly, its a messed up encounter to begin with.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               I suppose the following also could be considered spoilerish, so players... beware!

Knockdown (works rather well). Elemental Protection (per any arcanist or UMDer) avoids their special damage or chromatic breastplate (see below). Level the playing field.  They don't buff and I have never seen them heal (at least they have no heals in inventory).

Why not just leave through the doorway, rebuff with Invis and re-enter?  Save the hassle of walking back or spending the transport gold.  It's not like they can see your party when you go back to the tomb invis.

Invis will buy some time (as you have already noted).  The Never swords have piiful HPs for a level 8 fighter (only 64) and are not immune to crits.  20AC is not all that high so they can be hit... regularly.  Battling them at level 6 can draw out an otherwise pretty standard encounter (just 1 or 2 levels can make it so much easier).  Grab a range weapon while invis, move out of proximity and "wake"up" one at a time.  Then switch back to melee setup to solo away from the "pals".   As in most encounters, if you keep getting flanked, it can become very uncomfortable and tedious.

A few smuggler coins for enchanted breastplate along with Ophala's  diamond persuade reward crafts a chromatic breastplate which is about invulnerable to all the sword damage as you can get.

IMO, Blacklake is the best area to postpone because both this and the gauntlet arena are the toughest to dominate easily (and Loxar's scythe can be a royal PITA if he rolls a few crits). If you are only level 6 at end of Ch 1, it is likely 1) missed lots of XP opportunities and 2) are probably using a hench, familiar and summon in many battles.  That's the only way that the XP could have gotten diluted down so far.  A barb should be able to solo most battles especially with the advantage of all the arcane buffs.  Normal solo XP should be in the 35K to 39K range (level 8-9).

It should be challenging, but not that hard for a fighting class. Personally, I love this combat.  It's an easy 400XP or so when I really need it
               
               

               

                     Modifié par HipMaestro, 16 mars 2011 - 09:33 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Calgacus]

               

HipMaestro wrote...
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A few smuggler coins for enchanted breastplate along with Ophala's  diamond persuade reward crafts a chromatic breastplate which is about invulnerable to all the sword damage as you can get.

Please tell me more of this armor, where can it be found etc...

IMO, Blacklake is the best area to postpone because both this and the gauntlet arena are the toughest to dominate easily (and Loxar's scythe can be a royal PITA if he rolls a few crits). If you are only level 6 at end of Ch 1, it is likely 1) missed lots of XP opportunities and 2) are probably using a hench, familiar and summon in many battles.  That's the only way that the XP could have gotten diluted down so far.  A barb should be able to solo most battles especially with the advantage of all the arcane buffs.  Normal solo XP should be in the 35K to 39K range (level 8-9).

It should be challenging, but not that hard for a fighting class. Personally, I love this combat.  It's an easy 400XP or so when I really need it

I use a henchman (would rather be solo but found it too hard, I even upped from Tomi to Daelan to handle tougher fights - my pixie can do most rogue stuff I need)  and sometimes I have my pixie around if I forget to dismiss it when battle begins.  Plus I might be getting a xp penalty for the three classes - or will soon as I level up RDD).
Years ago when I first played this I used the inviso trick and the pick em off one at a time trick you mentioned.  Yes Luxor is a beast too and I also found the battle with Calik very tough this time around.  Some of those bloated dire spiders were painful too.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gregor Wyrmbane]

               

Calgacus wrote...

HipMaestro wrote...
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....
A few smuggler coins for enchanted breastplate along with Ophala's  diamond persuade reward crafts a chromatic breastplate which is about invulnerable to all the sword damage as you can get.

Please tell me more of this armor, where can it be found etc...

If you take a Breastplate +1 and a diamond to Marrok, he will craft a Chromatic breastplate for you. The special properties are +1 to armor class, and 10 resistance to cold, electrical, and fire.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

Calgacus wrote...
Plus I might be getting a xp penalty for the three classes - or will soon as I level up RDD).
...clip... Some of those bloated dire spiders were painful too.

You are getting whacked by the ECL of the barb class.  Actually, the sorc and RDD levels should help to smooth it out a bit with better XP, especially if you take lots of them.  All the fighter-type classes suffer XP-wise in the OC due to its unique ECL algorithm. so it's not so much the multiclassing but rather which class(es) you choose.  For example, a Fighter/Barb/Ranger (yeah, I know, not a likely combo) would get the same XP as a pure fighter.

The bloated dire spiders are bugged.  The CR is set way, way too low.  Too bad they didn't correct that in the last patch.

edit: Oh, the breastplate +1 can be bought for smuggler coins in the Seedy Tavern or from the merchant in the docks area.  Unless you take Heavy Armor prof feat your barb will be stuck with medium armor max so breastplate works nicely.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par HipMaestro, 17 mars 2011 - 03:57 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_cds13]

               Alternatively you can arm yourself with Xbow and a lot (but I mean A LOT) of patience. The four armors are slower than you are and by being barbarian you get a little extra speed. Run around the place by getting behind you the four armors, occasionally turn around, shot and run away.