NWN2 MotB: Robbing the Death God's Vault (tactics)

No plot spoilers here, but some tactical ones so unless you've already reached the lower level of the Death God's Vault, you might perhaps want to stop reading.

I love a challenge, so I've been attempting to rob the Death God's Vault even though it appears (so far) to be an optional area. It's very, very tough.

(1) You need a badass rogue to get the doors unlocked. Unless you're one yourself, the only one available (at least early in the game) is One of Many who's not much use in a fight.

(2) The place is infested by Vampire Ancient monks, and you get to fight about a half-dozen of them at a time.

Vampire Ancient monks have the following endearing traits:

* They move really, really fast.
* They hit really, really fast.
* They hit really, really hard.
* They have some rather amusing instant death attacts.
* They have extremely high and broad magic immunities.
* They have pretty impressive damage reduction.
* They regenerate like bunnies (if bunnies regenerated).

I've had my ass thoroughly handed to me several times, but am finally making some progress. Here's what (sorta) works -- other suggestions welcome.

* Hitting them really hard with a sharp object. Problem is, most characters will only score a hit on a natural 20, and much of the damage will be absorbed by damage resistance. Still, you can get through, sometimes. A pure fighter-type wielding a maxi-powerful weapon, with specializations, will be able to take one down (if properly buffed).

* "Pure magic" attacks, such as magic missile and missile storm. These appear to entirely bypass their resistances, but don't do much damage.
* Moon Bolt works.
* Creeping Doom works much of the time.
* That level-9 divine storm spell that only clobbers enemies appears to work.

Most other spells don't work, or work so rarely that it's not worth the trouble. So forget fireballs, flame strikes, cold spells, and so on.

The best I've managed so far is:

(0) Make sure most of your party has a high AC (40+) and regeneration from armor, and that your melee types have really badass weapons. Memorize high-level Summoning spells (Mordenkainen's Sword, Summon VIII-IX), Heal/Mass Heal, Greater Restoration, and enough short-duration buffs like Battletide and Divine Strength to get through the day.

(1) Buff up everybody with Death Ward, Tortoise Shell, Premonition (if available -- Safiya and Gann can both get it, as can you if you're an arcane spellcaster or a cleric with the Time domain), and, if you like, Bull's Strength for the melee types.

(2) Before facing the encounter, have everyone who can Summon an ally. Then have Safiya (or yourself) cast Haste (Persistent Spell).

(3) Park your PC in the middle of the vamps, with enough stuff to make sure s/he can just basically stand there and take it. All the better if s/he can deal some damage in return. If s/he's a cleric, Blade Barrier (self) is nice. Then cast the temporary party buffs (Battletide etc.).

(4) Cover the area with the area-effect spells that do work.

(5) Have everyone who can hold a blade wade in and take them out one at a time. Stop to renew any buffs/area attacks as applicable. Have Safiya support with pure magic attacks from the side (if with you).

I've actually managed to rob two completely useless treasures from there this way. I also spent so much time in it that I'm totally starved for Spirit Energy.

Any other ideas?

I've had problems with these as well. So far, the only thing that actually worked was either waiting untill late in the game (lvl 28 or so), or have Okku (which makes it hard to open the doors, since Kaji is not nearly as good as One of Many at opening doors).

Okku has no real issue with them though, but then again, he hardly has any problems at all in the game. For some reason he seems to hit nearly all the time, regardless of target, and always does incredible damage.

PS. Yes, I do consider Okku a bit overpowered, especially later on after he gets a few upgrades and the Devoted bonus.

Edit: The cleric/druid aoe fire rain spell works nicely on almost anything, including the vampires. They have a high resistance against it, but if you have both Gann and Kaelyn, and nuke that spell around like mad, they should take quite a bit of damage. However, there is a problem - these monks have a brilliant AI it seems, and will wooosh to the nearest spellcaster and interrupt their spells. For this tactic to work, you need to somehow lock down the monks (tank them in a narrow passage etc).

SPOILER:
If people really want to rob this place without too much difficulties, here's how:
Step 1: Play a rogue character to open the doors.
Step 2: Get Okku instead of One of Many.
Step 3: Buff Okku up with everything you have - persistant haste, spider skin, stoneskin, death ward, strength, endurance, etc etc.
Step 4: Let Okku deal with about half the vampires himself. Off-tank the others with summoned creatures while Okku is busy.
Step 5: Use Kaelyn the Dove as Okkus personal healer - greater restoration and Heal should be the main spells.
Step 6: Watch Okku slaughter the enemies.

This works for basically every fight in the game. However, step 1 is only needed in the vault.

Are they immune to sneak attack? (My guess is is that they are, but you've gotta try!)

Übereil

It seems so, since One of Many has sneak attack but I've never seen him hit one of them for any significant damage. Ever. He's practically useless against them.

Maybe that's just the games problem with getting them to trigger (I mean, I NEVER manage to trigger sneak attacks!). But I guess you're right, considering the other things they're immune to...

Übereil

Maylander said:

SPOILER:
If people really want to rob this place without too much difficulties, here's how:
Step 1: Play a rogue character to open the doors.
Step 2: Get Okku instead of One of Many.
Step 3: Buff Okku up with everything you have - persistant haste, spider skin, stoneskin, death ward, strength, endurance, etc etc.
Step 4: Let Okku deal with about half the vampires himself. Off-tank the others with summoned creatures while Okku is busy.
Step 5: Use Kaelyn the Dove as Okkus personal healer - greater restoration and Heal should be the main spells.
Step 6: Watch Okku slaughter the enemies.

This works for basically every fight in the game. However, step 1 is only needed in the vault.

Click to expand...

This was essentially what I did, but I had another trump card: a killer longbow.

When you're trying to get an audience with the Slumbering Coven you end up in the dream of a bard. If you win his game 3 times in a row he will give you a "Dream Dagger". The twist is that if you equip the dagger and use its special power you can change it (apparently 1 time only) into list of other weapon types -- one of which is a longbow.

The longbow has these stats: +6 attack bonus and unlimited +6 enchanted "dream arrows" that also do 1d6 positive energy damage to everybody AND 1d6 blungeoning damage to incorporeals (undead, shadows, etc).

My character is a fighter/divine champion that focused on the longbow & longsword so he had epic focus & specialization in longbow, a huge dex, improved crit. longbow, all the basic archer feats, etc. In short, he kicks ass on the longbow and with that weapon doing positive energy damage and 1d6 blungeon he was able to pelt those vampires with arrows while Okku (and to a lesser extent Kayeln) pounced on them with his claws.

It also helped that I had the shaman of the bezerker lodge upgrade Okku's strength. Not to mention that I was there late in the game so I already had plenty of items giving my party immunity to death magic/level drain/etc.

The downside is that I wasn't able to open one of the doors down there because Kaji simply didn't have the skill to even with "Greater Cat's Grace" cast on him (giving him +8 dexterity).

Indeed, the dream weapon is very nice, especially against undead. The longbow form is one of the best bows in the game as far as I know, and it's a decent mace for Kaelyn as well. For melee main characters I prefer to craft my own weapons, since you can slap on so many nifty enchants (for example a greatsword +7 with 3D6 fire, 3D6 frost and 3D6 electric damage - not too hard to get, but incredible damage compared to the dream weapon).

I have to admit, I've never actually opened the rsome of the doors in this place, and I've been through it twice now. I assume that a high level One of Many can do it, but I simply never let him tag along. I suspect that there is a way to change him from Boy-Rogue to Brute-Fighter, but I haven't figured out how yet (most likely influence based).

If it is possible to switch him back and forth, he could be quite useful.

Here's another tack to try: make a fighter with two (or three, tops) levels of rogue taken at levels 17-18, and put all the rogue skill points into Open Locks. You lose one point of base attack bonus, but you gain not only the Open Locks skill, but also Improved Evasion, access to the rogue class feats, and a touch of sneak attack. I haven't tried it, but I suspect that such a fighter buffed up with Greater Cat's Grace and using +10 thief's tools could open just about anything.