I've wasted way too much time in the last couple years on Bioware's various Baldur's Gate computer role-playing games, particularly on Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and its expansion, Throne of Bhaal. Now that I've finally managed to conquer Ascension, a recent modification to the ending of Throne of Bhaal that kicks up the difficulty and complexity another notch, I think I'll finally be able to put it all behind me. Yeah, that's it. Really....
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In an effort to put a nice lacy ribbon and bow on the whole Ascension experience, I thought I would pound out an after-action report for the edification of all three or so readers who might be interested in reading such a thing (not to mention to help settle it in my head and move on to other stuff).
This will contain extensive spoilers about Dave Gaider's recent Ascension mod, which changes some things in BG2's Throne of Bhaal expansion, particularly the Balthazaar encounter and the final battle. You have been warned. [top]
Okay. As you know, Bob, the real crux of Ascension is that it changes the original series of final battles at the Throne, from a recycling round of four fights against Melissan (interspersed with three tangential melees against moderately difficult beasties--some elemental princes, some demons), to a much harder (and, I think, more interesting) series of battles against Irenicus & Associates (heh. I wonder if they're on Martindale. I wouldn't be surprised), three separate legions of assorted hell spawn, and then, in the crème de la crème of big boss battles, all five of the über-Bhaalspawn at once. Oh, and Melissan shows up at some point, trailing clouds of Cambions, Succubi, and so forth.
The PC I had that was closest to ready when I first got Ascension installed was a human fighter/thief named Fingers Zakalwe that I had dualled at level 9. Ironically, he was also of NE alignment, and the first evil PC I had ever played (I guess I suck at roleplaying; even as a nominally evil character, I still ended up playing him in largely the same Neutral Good mode I end up playing all my characters, regardless of actual alignment. I just can't get turned on by the occasional slaughter of innocents, even in a game). Since Ascension actually does differ materially at a couple points depending on alignment, I saw the 'evil' path first, instead of the 'good' I would have seen had I been using any of my first several PCs.
My last couple of games, I've played with the difficulty slider set at 'hard' all the way through, mostly just for the added challenge of enemies that do greater damage. Note, however, that where the slider is set has a real effect in Ascension on enemy AI and some trigger point type stuff, like when Melissan decides to join the final battle.
Unfortunately, my relatively low-end computer just could not handle the final battle against the Five while set to 'hard,' at least for my evil party. And I was really stubborn about trying to nurse it along, too. I must have restarted that battle 20-odd times, only to have it freeze somewhere in the middle. At least two or three times, I had three of the Five down, the last two almost out of spells and down to "near death" status, all my party members alive and Melon-san chasing her tail, when it would freeze. I finally admitted defeat and tried scaling down to 'core rules,' where I beat it on the very first attempt (all those false starts had apparently taught me something about workable tactics, at least).
During this little exercise in beating my head against the wall, I was also bringing up a LG elven archer named Beleg Silverstring, and he was ready to try Ascension from the 'good' side almost as soon as Fingers had finished. Very strangely, I never had a computer problem with that character, and was able to finish the mod on 'hard'. I took both characters through twice, to see the separate endings, and that was that. [top]
Enough background. The party I had accompanying my thief was composed of Sarevok, Anomen, Aerie, Imoen, and Edwin. The party with my archer had Sarevok (with alignment change to CG), Keldorn, Jaheira, Imoen, and Edwin. Not particularly innovative, but it should be evident that I slipped over to the powergaming darkside a long time ago.
Preparation before leaving the pocket plane for the final time is, even more than usual, important. In particular, don't forget Protection from Magic Energy or one of its analogues, because Irenicus has a trigger or contingency that will fling an Abi-Dalzim's at the center of your party first thing (and on 150% damage: Ooouuch!). Also, make sure mages have a couple Protection from Magic Weapons memorized and ready to go, or they're likely to be quickly slaughtered. Finally, don't bother putting any good buffs on Imoen right here, since they'll be wasted for the first battle.
Warp in and meet Melon-san, trade snarky put-downs (you have a fairly varied choice of bitchy comments, but which one you settle on doesn't really affect the ultimate resolution one way or another), Irenicus shows up, Melon-san schleps back to the essence pipe for a few more hits, you peddle some more snark with Jonny, and then Don Jon summons in everyone's favorite psycho evil hottie, Bodhilicious.
Here's the first point where dialogue choice, stats, and alignment actually matter. If 1) you're of evil alignment, 2) you have a low enough reputation (anywhere below 10, I believe), and 3) you prune the dialogue tree with Bodhi very carefully (ask if she's just Jon's tool, point out you're pretty powerful yourself, promise her a piece of soul if she'll join your outfit), then she'll give Jon Bon Jovial a "talk to the butt!" brush-off and come over to your side. She's something of a spaz, and never really learns to take orders, but believe me, she will be very useful (for one thing, her level drain makes Yaga Blundera so much easier to kill).
To cover for the Toothy One's defection, Jon the Evil Elf summons in an extra Fallen Planetar, so instead of the usual two that you would otherwise be facing, you now have three--sprinkled smack-dab through the middle of your party, no less. And yes, they have vorpal weapons that will kill your magic-user types (who they will target first), as well as some nasty arrows. Oh yes, and lest we forget, Melon-san has "called forth the Bhaal taint" or some such in Imoen, so she freaks out, turns into the Slayer, goes hostile, and starts beating on your party members until you've taken down Jon (at which point, she reverts to her chirpy "heya, it's me, Imoen" self and sheepishly asks if she can rejoin the party). You pretty much just have to endure or avoid her attacks--which can be nasty, she actually finished Sarevok off a couple times--if you want her back in your party for the rest of the show, because if you kill her now, she ain't coming back.
Rewind just a bit...if you go in with a good-aligned PC, then there's no chance of Fraulein Fang joining you, so you'll be facing Jon, Bodhi, two Fallen Solars, and the non compos mentis Imoen. On the other hand, if you played your cards right during the Balthazar confrontation (good alignment, fairly high wisdom, choose the right dialogue choices to persuade him), he will show up to join you as soon as you warp in to the Throne. He's even worse about following orders than Bodhi--he'll attack who he wants to attack, dammit--but can also be quite useful. Be sure you have some equipment that protects against level drain easily to hand (upgraded Runehammer, etc.), because those "5 levels drained" bites are a real pain in the...well...neck.
Anyway. First thing, Jon Bon throws out various triggers and contingencies with, as I recall, an offensive and defensive mix. His real trick comes in the second round, though, when he fires up a Simulacrum and then an Improved Invisibility combined with a Spell Immunity:Divination. Cheeky monkey. I tried a couple of times to disrupt him before he could get to that step, but never actually succeeded, and eventually decided it wasn't the optimal tactic.
What works best, really, is some variation on the brute force method. Mages (Edwin and Aerie) need a Prot. from Magic Weapons first thing, or there's an excellent chance they won't be around to dance on Jon's grave (for the second or third time, granted). Fortunately, it has a casting time of 1, so they won't be interrupted. Send Bodhi to get up close and personal with Brother Dear--she usually managed to disrupt his Time Stop somehow, or if not, to take the brunt of its nastiness. Then focus every ounce of warriorly fervor on taking out the Planetars one by one; don't stint on the Whirlwind attacks. I had Sarevok wielding Ravager +6 as his main weapon, and somewhere in there he's likely to get off a vorpal hit on one of them. If they aren't taken out quickly, they are prone to annoying tics like flitting around the map, turning invisible, and healing theirselves. With a little single-minded effort, they can be pounded down fairly quickly, though. The second round, try to get a summoned creature up and running; with a lot of luck, you can fob them off on Imoen and keep her from eating one of your tanks.
Then just brute-force both JI and his sim. He won't be targettable with spells, but he will be targettable with a bitter keen edge of shining steel, and when push comes to shove, that's what really matters, neh? Oh, and for the 'good party' iteration, you have to take the Bodhisattva of Blood down, too. Here again, intense focus is the key. If you whittle her down in a leisurely sort of way, she'll get all misty on you, in which form she's pretty much immune to damage and will regenerate all her HP, to boot. The trick is to hit her so hard and so fast that you chunk 'er before she can go floaty--kinda similar to Greater Weirdwoof tactics, actually.
When Imoen returns to Shiny Happy People land, you're informed that she's gained the ability to channel Illasera...that is, she can go ethereal for a round (no damage possible), then be invisible for a couple more rounds (only limited damage possible, but also a possibility to Miscast Magic). This is probably a pretty useful skill, actually, but truth is I never used it, although I probably should have in a couple spots. That just highlights one of the potential downsides of Ascension: by the time you get to the final battle with the Five, you have so bloody many different spells, special abilities, item-based ability charges, and possible tactical trees, that it's exhausting to call the perfect preparation or response to mind in every situation, even utilizing your meta-ability of Space Bar of Infinite Pause. [top]
Okay, so now everyone's alive and in a fine fettle; bring Imoen up to speed with buffs, etc. You have to cut off the three essence pools, just like in the original ending. The difference is, now it's a straight 1-2-3 progression, with no Melissan interlude in between. Also, the protectors of each pool are a lot tougher. They're not overwhelmingly difficult with some intelligent tactics, but if you lolligag into it, they are entirely capable of handing you your head. The first time through, I wasted almost all of my thief's traps on one of the pools, and although that does make things a lot easier on that one pool, I'm not sure if that's the best use to make of them. On the other hand, in the end, I don't know that they're that useful in the final Five battle, either, so maybe it is best to use them up in these interim battles.
That brings up another important point--the issue of resource management. I've never cast a Wish spell in any of my BG2 games, so I don't know how that works for replenishing everything as if you've rested. In the original ending, you just had to husband resources, grit your teeth, and stumble through. In Ascension, on the 'hard' setting you get the effect of having "rested" when you click on the final pool for the second time, so all spells and abilities get reset (of course, then you only have a scant 3 rounds or so to do anything preparation-wise before the final battle starts). I understand that on easier settings, you also get a "rest" effect from one of the earlier pools(?) At any rate, don't go absolutely hog wild at the very outset, but don't feel too bad about using your abilities and good magic stuff over the course of the pool fights.
The first pool's denizens consist of some Cambions, maybe a succubus or two, a Marilith, possibly a Balor. I think at least a few of these are somewhat souped-up versions from what was encountered earlier in the game. The Cambions are pretty tough, for instance, with both sword and missile attacks, and I learned to my sorrow, somewhere along the line, that a Balor's claws have a chance of a vorpal hit. The second pool throws a Babau or two into the mix--mostly annoying because they can go invisible and backstab. The third pool has all of the above, and includes a couple Alu-fiends and a Nabassu (which will go invisible and can level drain with a hit).
Still, in the end, they're just super-charged demon fights. My good party that had Keldorn found the second and third pools a little easier because his instantaneous-cast True Sights clapped a stopper over any backstab capers, which was nice. When you click the center of the pool the first time, the defenders show up. After defeating them, don't forget to click them again with your PC (I think Imoen can also do it, and get the resulting power(s), but I used my PC), and you are granted certain powers, as well as full healing on your party (so don't bother burning any heal spells or potions after the battle is over).
On the third and final pool, I purposely left the Balor alone until all the others were wiped out, then unveiled my newly-gained "seduce hellspawn" mojo. It's akin to when a mage tries to summon and control an elemental earlier in the game--both the PC and the demon get a "confoozled" animation over their heads that lasts for a round, at the end of which, you either have a new ally or a really pissed-off demon that needs killin'. [top]
So. My thief party, I set traps at the spawning points of all the Five (in Ascension, particularly the final battle, it's nigh on impossible to avoid any OOC knowledge problem, unless you try to artificially compensate for it--my hat is really off to anyone who managed to go through it the first time, without any hints. I doubt it's even possible, myself). A couple of spike traps for Sendai, a normal one for Yaga (just to wake him up a bit--not expecting it to actually accomplish anything), a normal one for Big Blue, then a spike each for Illin'Sara and Mr. Just Call Me Bruce. I don't know if this really accomplishes anything for any of them--it doesn't interrupt any of their initial contingencies or triggers, and although it hurts Sendai enough to get her down to 'injured', by the time you can get around to damaging her some more, she's well able to have healed herself again anyway.
Preparation for this battle--load up on all the elemental, magic damage, fear, and mental protections for everyone. Have everyone hasted (Oil of Speed or boots for the mages--they'll need to move quickly), and the fighters and fighter wannabes Improve Hasted. My thief party, I tried a Project Image for Edwin and Imoen, with their real selves tucked away at the bottom of the pools, but it's almost counter-productive, since the images will be automatically dispelled and the real characters stuck in the pre-positioned line-up along with everyone else when Mel shows up for the final pre-dust-up confab/mutual put-down fest.
For summons, I made sure to use up my natural limit of five--several Mord's Swords and a Planetar. With Jaheira in the party, it's also nice to bring up an elemental prince. Don't make the mistake (like I did once) of summoning too early in the preparation--I had a couple of my MS disappear right as the battle proper got started. Note that the various hellspawn don't count against your natural summon limit. A comment about that, though. I never did try the huge demon army strategy (as much because of fears my rig wouldn't handle it as anything), but if you get the right flavor of spawn on your side beforehand, they will be able to cast Gate, and anything a 'friendly' demon gates in will also be friendly. A Balor has one Gate, a Nabissu has three, a Marilith one, and I think a Succubus and Alu-fiend have one, too. What a given Gate will call in appears to be random, regardless of which critter casts it.
The downside of hellspawn, and it's a potentially big one, is that they can be pulled from your side back to Melon-san. In fact, as soon as the final dialogue sequence ends and Melon-san leaves you to the tender mercies of the Five in order to go bask in the effulgent rays of Bhaal-essence some more, you'll get a text message "Melissan: Command Minions of the Abyss", and all your demon posse get confused icons. What?! She can do that even while she's trippin' out in the Bliss Zone? That's hardly cricket. Nevertheless, inside a round or two, you're likely to have lost half your hell crew back to the Dark(er) Side. I think, on balance, it's still worth it to have a handful--say, three to five--ready to go at the very beginning, if only to keep Abazagoogoo from taking an undue interest in chopping your core party into little electrified bits before you're ready for him.
The party is pre-positioned at the bottom of the main circle, facing, as always, north. Sendai and Bumbling Doofus (aka Yaga-Obscura) appear to the left of the group, while Big Blue, Enter the Dragon, and Illin' are to the right. For a good party, if Balthazar has joined forces, Mel will substitute the improved Gromnir (he's still a wuss compared to the other four). In the final pre-battle dialogue, she'll also try to seduce Sarevok away from your side (I have it on good authority that if he isn't in your party, she will warp him in to fight against you. I personally never had to face that situation, since he's always been in my group). If he's changed alignment, you're okay. If not, I'm not sure what it turns on--she claims to be able to remove any geas due to an oath he swore to you. Probably reputation too high or charisma too low(?) I always got a chuckle out of his reply to her blandishments, though ("What? We have no business, wench").
I put one Mord Sword up by Yaga, and the Planetar over near where Sendai will be. The bulk of the fodder goes over to the other side, since that side will be more physically dangerous at the outset.
In this battle, far more than any other in the entire saga, there's a tide and turning point; at the start, things are clearly against you, and it's an uphill struggle to stay alive and make progress. At some undefined point, momentum shifts, and you start to feel like you might be getting the upper hand (which is not to say that you can't still be killed, because you certainly can). For me, I generally felt it was around the time 3-4 of the Five were dead, all my party was alive (never killed or at least resurrected) and relatively healthy, and Melon-san hadn't yet Gated in too many of her own team of hellspawn. Then things would start to look fairly rosy. Up until that point, there's just an awful lot of luck and very delicate timing involved. [top]
The cornerstone of my opening strategy for both my thief and my archer parties was built around 1) stripping protections from Sendai and Abazigal ASAP, while keeping them (and everyone else) occupied, and 2) exploiting Time Stop as much as possible. Like I said, this takes some very delicate timing, and a fair amount of luck.
Each of the Five has at least one, maybe more, special things that makes him or her really damn annoying and hard to kill. (I exclude Gromnir, since he's not truly one of the Five, and he's pretty easy to kill, relatively speaking). Sendai, it's her incredible (and numerous) magic protections, her "twist onyx ring" teleport ability (unlike in her own enclave, with an open playing field, this actually means something), and her Heal contingency that will take her immediately from "near death" to uninjured if it just has time to go off. Yaga, it's his insanely high physical resistances--don't even bother with him until you can either 1) have Bodhificus bite him into oblivion (kind of cool when that happens, as long as it's not at an inopportune time), or 2) surround him with about four Big Smellies with Greater Whirlwinds and pound on him for a turn or so. Balthazar, it's all his funky stances, including (but not limited to) his "flip resistances" (sudden 90% resistance to physical damage), "second wind" (instant full heal), and Lunar Stance (immunity to Time Stop). Illasera, it's her Ethereal ability (and we won't even mention her stupid Arrows of Cheesy Effect--my Archer is way higher level than her, why don't his missiles get to do stuff like that?). Abazigal, it's his line-up of combat protection spells and contingencies (a Prot. from Magic Weapons contingency that fires in the middle of a Time Stop?! Say WHAT?!), coupled with the fact that he takes the principle of "the best defense is a good offense" to frankly obscene lengths.
Keldorn makes a real difference at the very beginning, simply because of that über True Sight of his. Sendai and Big Blue will speed through a series of contingencies at the very beginning like nobody's business, at the end of which, they will be better protected than Fort Knox. Abazigal will have an Immunity:Abjuration going, so he's going to need something special to get to him. Sendai will go invisible, giving her breathing space to start the launch of her own Time Stop unless you can foil it. If you have Keldorn, don't have him tied up with something else, just hold him ready to True Sight as soon as Sendai disappears. My thief lacked Keldorn; the Planetar had a True Sight already going, but that's luck of the draw how long it will take to dispell her invisible, and it was never soon enough.
I had Edwin wearing Vecna, and although he can get off his own Time Stop easily enough before Sendai can trigger hers, I didn't find this to be the most efficient approach. My PC could use his Focus ability so that he and Edwin were both free, but going that early doesn't really get the most bang for the buck. Edwin can strip protections during his TS, true, but that's really all he can effectively do, and as for the PC, that early on, neither my thief nor my archer can hurt much, not nearly as much as if we waited a little bit. Along the same lines, if he burned his Focus so as to be immune to Sendai's Time Stop, it really didn't help, except perhaps to alter Sendai's depredations a bit. Still couldn't really hurt her, or anyone else that much.
It's interesting to note that Sendai seems a lot more dangerous during her Time Stop if the difficulty is set to hard, as opposed to core. She doesn't always do exactly the same thing, but she will cast Improved alacrity, and then there's an excellent chance that she will teleport into the midst of the party and go to town. She'll cast Insect Swarm, and probably a Harm (which always hits), sometimes on the PC, and then start inflicting pain on the mages. It's pretty much guaranteed reload at that point. On the other hand, if you have a lot of summoned junk over on the right hand side, she often gets distracted and goes to play with them for the duration. If you can wait out the TS more or less unscathed, then you're good to go. On core setting, she's a lot stupider about her spell selection, and it's easier to survive.
I have Imoen cast a Spellstrike at Abazigal as soon as the battle starts. He won't have protections up just yet, but fear not, by the time the spell casts, his stuff will all be in place for the takedown. Aerie I send first thing down to hide at the bottom of one of the side pools. When Sendai's Time Stop wears off, then it's time to swing into action. I try to take down her spell/combat protections, and breach Big Blue's combat protections too. Then, it's time for our own TS. This is where things get dicey, because if we've waited too long before starting Edwin's TS, then the right side of the board will have disposed of most or all of the shielding fodder and have started to turn their attention to your core party. This, as you might imagine, is bad. If Abazigal ever gets an unimpeded shot at pretty much any member of your party, you can just holler Sayonara, then bend over and start kissin' it goodbye. On the other side, Yaga is generally easy enough to keep distracted with the Planetar and sword--oh, and Bodhi, who I usually send over to that side initially.
I start the battle with a Simulacrum of my thief, cast from a scroll, but they've usually killed it by about this point, so I cast another in the round prior to initiating Edwin's TS. (A thief's Use Any Item is crazy powerful--my thief had a -18 AC, -24 with Greater Evasion; 230 hit points with all the item boosts; and a Stoneskin cast on himself, with another scroll waiting in the wings).
If the planets align just right, Edwin's TS will go off as planned just as Abazigal is unprotected, Sendai is unprotected, and Illasera either hasn't gone ethereal yet, or has come out of it. If the stars are really on your side, Balthazar's Lunar Stance has worn off and he hasn't done another one yet, so he's caught too. Oh, what a joyous moment that is! Illasera can be extremely dangerous, not to mention hard to kill, but if you catch her in a TS while she's not under her post-ethereal invisible effect, she's easy meat.
But hold on--delicacy in execution is still the watchword. See, on hard setting, as soon as just one of the Five is killed, then Melon-san swears off the pipe for good and comes out to stomp your scrawny ass. On core setting, you get two kills before that happens. Note that this unhappy event will interrupt--and negate--any spells you're in the middle of casting, and it will also truncate any Time Stop you happen to be enjoying. So the real trick, obviously, is to get as many of the five as you can down to 'badly injured' or 'near death' at the same time, so once you administer that first coup de grâce, the second and third can be delivered quickly after. This is more easily described than done. More than once, I've blown it by killing someone before I was ready; including having Bodhi bite Yaga into negative levels because I wasn't paying close enough attention to what she was up to.
The very best execution goes something like this: Edwin casts Improved Alacrity, then strips any outstanding protections, replenishes summons, which are probably pretty low at that point, maybe flings some Lower Resistances and various damage spells just for fun. I also had him do an Improved Invisibility followed by Immunity:Abjuration & Divination once, which turned out to be a pretty useful protection later in the dance.
My thief, wielding Blackrazor (alternatively, Andurgival +5), Improve Hasted, thrashes on Illin'--after a couple hits, he activates his Assassination special ability, then hits her once or twice more (this has to be carefully judged, because Assassination leads to damage of 100+ HP/hit, and one hit too many will kill her), then pounds on Big Blue until either his freaky contingency fires or he's down to 'near death'. On to Sendai (hopefully she hasn't snuck in a stoneskin or suchlike before the TS and while I wasn't looking); a hit or two and then, it's time for him to start casting his own Time Stop from a scroll. Best case, it will go off just before Edwin's wears off, and I will go hurt Balthazar as much as possible--he has a tendency to, much like Abazigal's cheesy contingency, "flip resistances" even when he's otherwise frozen in the TS--and then, deliver the killing stroke to Illasera, Sendai, and maybe (probably not) Balthazar.
Mellisan warps out, and boy, is she pissed. Yawn. Bring it, sister. Very first order of business is to hustle Imoen and Edwin off to safety and hiding in the pools, while ignoring Melon-san and surrounding Abazagoogoo with my heretofore largely unused warriors and beating the holy s**t out of him (Edwin has breached his protections again). They then turn to Balthazar and do the same. (it's not as easy as all that if he's using his flip resistances, second wind, and stances that push everyone physically away, but usually he's already burned through some of those, and he can't do them all at the same time. He can be taken down with effort, suffice to say). Yaga is last--should have some levels drained; again, surround and pound is the order of the day. In fact, there's a bit of a lull, if you can call it that, where we're cleaning things up and getting ready for the main assault on Mel, and that's the ideal time to make sure everyone is healed up, the warriors have a Hardiness going, are all Im. Hasted, etc.
Each time one of the Five falls, it hurts Melon-san and knocks her unconscious for a round or so--no more. If the Five go down quickly, then she doesn't have a lot of latitude to do painful things to your party. If it's more prolonged then hopefully we've been able to distract her with various summons--she'll continue to try to seduce your hellspawn, and cast Death Spells at your lesser summons; stuff like Planetar and Deva and elemental princes are probably the best bet. Also, at some point, she'll get off her own Time Stop and Gate in her own fresh minion or three. Then she'll turn to physical attacks. If we're lucky, she'll be out of range of party members, and take out her agression on some hapless fodder. If she focuses on a party member and has long enough to work with, we pretty much have to be resigned to a death and resurrection.
I ignore her as far as I can as long as we're still working on the Five; there's no point in attacking her before they're all gone. Once the last one falls (or their death is clearly imminent), Edwin sidles into range and casts a Spellstrike to take down her Spell Trap and Divine whatever. Imoen is close behind with a Breach to take down her combat protections. My healed-up warriors (in this case, PC, Sarevok, and Anomen) surround her and get down to business. She has some physical resistances, but not as many as Yaga does. Imoen, Edwin, and Aerie should stay back, but also cast some more summons as soon as possible, because as soon as Mel recovers from her swoon, she pops off a contingency that Gates in more minions. On core setting it's not too bad--a handful or so--but on hard setting, it looks kind of scary. I think I counted ten or so, composed of Cambions, Babau, Succubi, and the odd Alu-fiend and/or Nabassu. Ignore them, except to set your summons on them. They can hurt you, but they're irrelevant to the final goal. Just beat on Melon-san as hard and fast as possible. Around about the time she gets to 'badly injured', she'll put up some protections again. The mage corps lingering at the fringes can handle that ASAP. She'll go to her final reward shortly thereafter.
The strategy for my LG archer was roughly the same, with some minor differences. First, Sendai's Time Stop is much easier to avoid. The instantaneous dispell of her invisibility makes all the difference. I have Edwin immediately target her with a Pierce Shield, wait a beat, then have Imoen start a Breach. Time it just right, and the Breach will hit right on the heels of the PS. Meanwhile, archer, Sarevok, and Keldorn all target Gromnir with a missile barrage. We usually get him down to 'badly injured' in just a couple rounds. Have to be very careful that we don't overdo it, since I had Sunnis (earth elemental prince) summoned, and too many hits will kill Gromnir prematurely. As soon as Imoen's Breach hits Sendai, my archer pivots on his heel and he and Jaheira start flinging junk at her. That takes her right out of her game plan.
Edwin and Imoen immediately head over to tag-team Abazigal in like manner. This gets dicey, once again, if Big Blue takes it into his head to come hunting your core party. Once they have him stripped, and Edwin gets off his TS, then the strategy is even more similar. Probably have to re-breach Sendai. My archer is actually a lot more effective during the TS when dual-wielding Rune Hammer in the off hand and either FoA +5 or Ang. +5 in the main--definitely FoA for the first few hits on a given target, until that 'Slowed' notification shows up--slowing Abazigal does wonders for toning down his sheer lethality. Biggest obstacle here is managing to pin Illin'Sara down long enough to kill her. Even getting her to 'near death' is fraught with potential frustration, since she might be able to go ethereal and escape. She can't heal herself all the way, but she can come back and do just rude amounts of mayhem during her two 'invisible' rounds, during which you can't hardly touch her.
Whew. Get to the end, and as in the original, the Solar shows up to inform Mel that the curtain is ringing down on her travelling freak show. For evil parties, Bodhi prances up demanding her smidgen of soul. It doesn't matter if you honor your bargain or try to renege; if you try to pull a double-cross, the Solar will force you to honor the agreement. The Solar then makes a few snide flings about what a bad boy you are, and outlines your choices--give up the taint or become a Power. I tried both, mostly to see if the assorted epilogues were any different. For good parties, Balthazar has a chance to be cleansed of the taint, and accepts gladly. Bodhi and Balthazar (depending on which was your ally) both get an epilogue of their own, too.
Quite a little exercise, one that stretches the combat possibilities of the BG saga to their furthest extent. The Ascension mod is often intensely frustrating, but it's also a great challenge and by-and-large, an awful lot of fun.
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