Frasier - gnome kensai (4th and final update)
I had thought that an early morning start would allow Frasier to briefly join Russell in ToB, but the gods (or demons) decided otherwise.
Perth was comprehensively chunked and his book offered spell turning as a choice for Frasier. Moving on to Spellhold, I didn't want Frasier to lose her nice neat row of 19 stats, so talked to the demon in the dream immediately after making a choice and then nipped inside while he was busy telling Frasier he had nothing to say (Level 31 - GWW).
As usual, acquiring a bag of holding was a welcome relief after so long of being cramped for inventory space. There were no problems in Spellhold, with the lich falling to a first Azuredge GWW (the same fate overtook Dace Sontan). The group of yuan-ti at the exit to the first level got Frasier to level 33 - power attack - and some trolls worshipping their gods to level 34 - GWW.
After Lonk exploded a GWW on Irenicus would have killed him, though Frasier retreated and waited until he had remembered his lines. Frasier accepted Saemon's offer and soon found himself in Fish City. Convincing the spectator to let her look inside the chest got Frasier to level 35 - GWW. She killed the king (smite punching him through a wall, but fortunately leaving his equipment on the ground where he was) and then the prince before descending a rope to the Underdark.
A group of drow were overwhelmed with Gaxx haste (level 36 - GWW) as were some fungal growths on the way to the Deep Gnome village. Frasier used an Azuredge GWW to kill the balor while it was occupied with Ras. After talking to Adalon Frasier did a bit of shopping at the drow stores - he bought Firetooth, though unfortunately that's also bugged with GWW (a problem with all weapons that have different attacks in melee and range).
On the way to rescue Phaere Frasier found a group of ambushers. A combination of Gaxx haste with smite one-shotted the mage and wreaked havoc on the rest. The mindflayers and umber hulks with Phaere proved no more of an obstacle. With a bit of time then available Frasier went to clear the kuo-toa lair, using Azuredge GWWs on the demon knights to avoid vorpals (level 37 - GWW). On to the beholder lair where Frasier entered invisibly and used Azuredge GWWs on the elder orb. She ignored the remainder of the area, other than picking up the greenstone amulet.
After helping Phaere with a beholder, Frasier went to the illithid lair and quickly whipped through that (level 38 - hardiness; level 39 - GWW), although he did get intelligence drained down to 4 at one point when I got a bit blase about attackers and was hit simultaneously by 2 illithid! Simyaz threw his life away in a vain attempt to get the silver sword before Frasier finished off her work for Phaere - getting her 40th and final level in the process (HLAs totalling 3xH, 1xWW, 13xGWW, 2xPA, 1xCS, 1xSm). After the ritual ended painfully for Phaere and the Matron Mother, Frasier quickly ran out of the city and returned the eggs to Adalon.
The encounter with Kruin is bugged in my installation, so that the cutscene hangs before the fight. As a result Frasier just gave him the Silver Sword blade in order to progress. She sorted out her inventory and made up the Wave halberd, but discovered she had apparently sold the gauntlets of ogre power somewhere. Crom Fayr's not particularly helpful, so I won't bother trying to track them down.
After a final look at the shops Frasier returned to the Graveyard to confront Bodhi. I decided to do that with no buffs - just using the iMoD. Only Bodhi herself managed to do any significant damage.
On to Suldanesselar, where Frasier raced through the area mainly using GWWs with Defender of Easthaven in the off hand. Nizi took 2 GWWs to finish off while occupied by a rare appearance from an air elemental.
At the Tree of Life the only thing that worried me was a timestop maze. So Frasier ran from Jon as soon as she had killed the parasites and left Kitthix to trigger his timestops. A little bit of running using Firetooth and Jon had had enough.
From the Tears Frasier picked up elemental resistance, immunity to normal / +1 weapons, +15 HP, -2 AC, +2 strength. When Jon and the demons appeared Frasier immediately ran. With Azuredge no longer usable (due to her change to evil alignment) she had no ranged weapon that she could use GWW with, but Firetooth still quickly wore down the demons. During that Jon tried a symbol stun and, remembering that she had somehow failed against one of those before, she countered with a potion of invulnerability. Mislead is always a worrying spell as it potentially allows the caster to get into maze range, but Frasier kept running round and soon had only the slayer to worry about. With him at near death victory seemed assured when Jon resorted to PW:cheating bastard!
I had been extremely careful during this chase and the Slayer had never got remotely close to Frasier - the screenshot shows accurately the range from which he cast maze. The magic resistance check on this occurs at the point the spell is cast, so it was already too late here for Frasier to take any action and regrettably her 20% MR was not enough to save her. That's by no means the first time I've been caught by a maze from distance, but it is incredibly hard to defend against for non-magic users. I could have used magic protection potions or scrolls, but there are too many encounters where maze is an option to do that as a routine protection. If I'd known when the spell was coming spell turning would also have been an option for Frasier, but that gets worn away quickly so would have disappeared much earlier if Frasier had used it at the start of the combat.
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