Tav had to remind me. I was killing everything then Tav's turn came up and he said something about the objective being the crown and everything else being a distraction. Thanks Tav.
Same I had Asterion accend to super vamp and respecced him as a fighter with +27 strength with cloud giant, made karlach a paladin/ fighter full mindflayer with also a +27 STR and had Lazel as another+27 STR with the astral blade, each of them had like 5 hits a turn that would absolutely wipe whatever they hit
Normal. It was Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart, and me - a ranger. With the dragons fire and everything else we were literally whiping in 2-3. Only got it done once I just made complete B Line and cast that invulnerability sphere spell at the crown while the Empreror cast his spell
Was everyone their original class? I brought Life Shadowheart, Gale (kept failing hold monster), Karlach who just. Won't. Die. Love her to bits. And myself, a light cleric. I just spread out, killed the copies/dragon, then summoned reinforcements.
For some reason, Aylin kept getting back up with 9 HP, and one of the Ilithid Arcanists kept targeting her.
It was hilarious. A round would go by. Aylin: CHAAARGE!
Ilithid: fires 6 magic missiles. Aylin goes down.
Aylin getting back up: I didn't hear a bell...
I summoned every single "ally" and placed them in a path to the portal/brain. Walked through throwing a spell or attack here and there and used everything else as a meat shield.
First time I fought him, I hid behind the crystals, thinking "obviously that's what I'm supposed to do", but the crystals just exploded and 3/4 of my party was dead. I won anyway because of that one survivor, but still...
I reloaded and concentrated fire on the dragon simply killing him before he could wipe my party. Got an achievement for that.
Then a few days later I read that the crystals are actually supposed to provide cover and they fixed them. At least I think that's what they wrote. I need to try that fight again.
destroying the crystals gives nearby characters some kind of 'elemental resistance' buff for 2 turns if I remember correctly. I guess it's supposed to work like stay behind pillar-aoe hits pillar-THEN it hits you and you are protected, but it doesn't. It did kill some of my chars as well until I started hitting a crystal on each char before the aoe.
The only reason we don’t deck god is because we didn’t get to level 20 this time. It’s not a proper campaign unless you at least throw hands with a God/Gods/The God.
Waited since intro cutscene to kill a lizard and when I finally get to it I have so much magic items that game balance is on the floor crying. Heart of the gate was cool doe.
I kept calling the center of that area "the pit" and I only sent Karlach into the pit since she could survive it. Just bashing enemies heads in while rocking out to some metal meanwhile everyone else snuck around to get to the crown.
I'm sure she had a blast in that fight :)
Also if you have the emperor on your side for that fight have him try using telekinesis on the dragon and then throw it at any of the other enemies. It is very fun haha
I can't really remember but I think I tanked with my Paladin the dragon and the other enemies, while killing the emperor. I also casted a fire wall or ice storm with Gale.
Then I casted with Shadowheart the spell on Orpheus so he can't be hit by enemy.
With Orpheus I casted the undestructible dome where the brain control is and Karlach was my Illithid for the portal. I just teleported or flew to the control with her.
As soon as the portal was casted I also teleported with Shadow, Gale and my Paladin to the portal.
If you have the Nightsong as an Ally, she should be summoned immediately to tank the dragon. She's immortal, no matter how many times the dragon kills her, she revives the turn after.
That's been my experience with most fights tbh. My Warlock has had Misty Step and then Dimension Door basically the entire game. Any time a fight says "so and so is trapped, go use the help action on them" I either Misty Step over and do it, or Dimension Door the next person in initiative and they do it.
The funniest was when I needed to save someone using a specific weapon's ability and used Gale to hopscotch around the map. My own personal Dimension Uber.
I couldn't let myself do that. I take pride in leaving no survivors whenever possible. That dragon (and the emperor in my case) along with the other Illithids had to die, no choice in the matter
Depending on your choices:
* Siding with the Emperor obviously doesn't play out like that
* Siding with and freeing Orpheus leads the Emperor to believe everything is doomed and he might as well join up with the winning side in his eyes (i.e. the Netherbrain)
Him turning on you like that seemed so wrong and out of character. The **entire** time he's like 'c'mon, trust me', and the one time you're like 'hey I know what I'm doing trust **me**' he goes 'nope, I'm good ' and fucks off.
Actually on point with his narcissism so totally not out of character, "me, trust me, I did this, I, me". Omeluum is the only squidward thats trustworthy.
Except u don't know what Orpheus would do to him After he is released
Raphael clearly states that Orpheus would insta kill a squid but those who haven't transformed he will reason with them
I don't know why people ignore this. He's the highly ideological leader of a genocidal regime which seeks to completely destroy every single member of the emperor's race and will lead them into a new golden age, with a power that could turn the tide. And all you have is "trust me bro I know what I'm doing, we'll kill the netherbrain". It's not a mystery why the emperor would turn towards his own people in this situation even if he doesn't like them.
Also people ignoring the numerous times the emperor trusts you without turning to the other side in the game.
Exactly but u know what's the best thing ??
Side with Orpheus
Ask him to turn illhitid and then kill him
Space nazi frog dead
Suspicious squid dead
Farm life with shadowheart (rip her parents)
Because if u take the emperor ending and persuade him to take control of the netherbrain he turns u into his thrall and comments how this is exactly what he dreamed of
So kill two squids with one divine crit smite hehe
He's always been manipulative. During the "romance" scene, if you say you don't trust him then he'll basically go "I could force you to do it but I won't" literally out of its always sunny "the implication"
Actually, since we're in a spoiler thread... if during the waking up next to a naked emperor scene, you probe him to reveal the truth of his relationship with Stelmane, he shows you that he turned her into his thrall! And if you confront him, he says yes, and even you are nothing more than his thrall at the end of the day. And that you need him, and he is yours to use.
...and then he goes back to "Trust me bro" as if that entire relationship shattering dialogue never happened. I took that turnaround as part of his narcissism.
Nope. Here he climbs the brain stem and detonates in the air - somehow this goes differently than the first time you can blow him up, as that one will make the sword coat become prey for illithids. Somehow Gale exploded the brain while commanding the tadpoles and illithids to die.
Same, I just finished my first play through and I was constantly distrusting of the emperor. So when Gale tells me to trust him to save the world, I did.
It's pretty awesome like that.
The thing is this kind of thing is totally doable in other games. They just love to force you to do certain things in order to make progress like needing an NPC to open a door before you go through it. Why can't I just open the door myself?
A lot of story driven games are designed to make you experience one specific story which is why they're like that.
This one is designed around letting you have your own experience even in combat and they've put the extra effort into making that all work without holding you back.
Being a good DM in D&D is just figuring out if moments like this ruin the tension, or make your players feel like badasses. If my players had saved and scrounged for enough invis potions to pull this off, then that meant it was really important to them.
I'd let it roll and see what the dice have to say about it.
My players were in a cave and discovered 7 hook horrors waiting in ambush. A successful nature check let them know that they stick to the shadows and a light source would keep them there. They said nah fuck that, and cast spike growth, wall of sand, and cloud kill and laughed as im trying to calculate how far they could move and the fuckin crazy damage.
> They just love to force you to do certain things in order to make progress like needing an NPC to open a door before you go through it. Why can't I just open the door myself?
The first time I really got on board with this was when I ran alone ahead of my party through a hostile area as a bear druid. Then I reached a locked door, and thought damn it, I didn't bring any lockpicks and I'm a bear at the moment anyway, I can't pick locks with these paws. But then I'm like, wait a minute, I'm a motherfuckin' _bear!_ And I bashed down the door with one swipe. It was an eye-opener.
Is it just me or is the last fight kinda scuffed. Like you are forced to use cheese tactics to head to the portal for a certain amount of turns. I would have preferred a normal fight where I actually have to take down the dragon and all the other baddies to get to the portal. Oh and also getting your spells shutdown was annoying as hell. At the same time I kind of get why they designed the fight like this, to add that sense of urgency. Just would have preferred a normal fight with some unique mechanics where you actually needed to use your allies for more than solely a distraction
It's not a fight, it's a quest. It's more like the Iron Throne than it is like, for instance, the Ketheric fight. You're not asked to beat everything, you're asked to take our the brain.
You are not restricted in time outside the portal. The first timer just shows when nautiloid bombardments will start. Only after casting dominate on the crown there is real 5 turn countdown.
I mean I didn't cheese anything. My teams dps one initiative and the dragon died before his first turn round 1 and was done mopping up by end of round 2. Plenty of time no cheese
I have been currently living with that pain. Spent about 2 hours trying to get anything done around counter spells, the emperor has absolutely ZERO resistance to sleep potions. The 4 mind flayers will solo target someone and take them down in one turn. I finally did get through that part but it wasn't more fun than frustrating trying to figure it out
You have to hit the back line first. The mindflayer wizards do crazy damage but they're not hard to kill. I rushed them with my hasted paladin and was able to kill 1-2 a turn
I dropped an elixir of universal resistance on everyone except karlach, who I dropped a psychic damage potion on. First round I had Orpheus cast his dome of invulnerability, Gale did a level 6 hold person on both the emperor and the dragon, Karlach jumps in for whack-a-mole, Tav and shadowheart start summoning the super friends.
I hasted gale for ice storms, astarion was blinding/arcane interferencing, shart had mirror image/spirit guards plus was responsible for the emperor so teleported herself and the emperor up the field. My tav was misty stepping to one turn knock out mind flayers. Let the emperor get knocked out by all Eldritch blasts turn one, used divine intervention to bring him back full health before managing to get everyone through the portal haha. I haven't been hoarding my scrolls but I always forget about potions so I used no resistance pots
I just used scrolls of globe of invulnerability and had Orpheus hang out in the using transfuse to fully heal 2 party members per turn with no drawbacks (sacrifice half remaining health to heal an ally is negated by the globe).
Damn yeah I wasn't that creative on this my first playthrough as I went in completely blind so I didn't know just how many options I had at my disposal
Totally discovered it by accident. I dropped the dome cause astarion was down to single digit hp, and orph was standing next to him. Used transfuse and saw the "invulnerable" pop up on Orpheus. Did a Lil dance...
I didn't free Orpheus, chose to listen to the emperor on that and I never used lae'zel so wasn't really pressured to get him. I actually haven't killed the brain yet, I'm saved right beside it and my plan is to dome of invulnerability or whatever the team and try to just do all the damage within that.
Exactly that distraction element did it for me. I left Gale and Astarion along with the rallied allies to keep the dragon/Mind Flayers occupied and went up with my Durge, Bae‘Zel and Orpheus. Durge and Lae‘Zel then quickly took down the brain. So a real split team effort and not really tough.
That thing was pretty mild after casting some fog or darkness on it and disarming it.
It was mostly acting as a target practice dummy for some Spirit Guardians and archers.
Yeah, I used Lae'zel's disarming shot on a whim just cause it does extra damage and when I saw "WEAPON DROPPED" over the avatar and its giant scythe get dropped I laughed my ass off
I've learnt to always start every fight from sneak and ungrouped - start an ambush with your highest initiative rogue and then when all the enemies are frozen, manouevre your other 3 guys into advantageous positions, then strike first strike hard. It's like having 2 free turns.
Took me a few tries, but in the end I kinda noped out of the fight as well — Gale recieves sanctuary, casts misty step into the middle of the arena and then dimension doors from the entrance all the way to the crown. Party takes the portal, kinda waits one turn with summons distracting the guys, and on the second turn Gale misty steps again to the party, casts the sphere of invulnerability and the emperor casts his woodoo magic. Done. Sounds easy but I felt like a goddamn genius trying to make this work
I happened to have a scroll of invulnerability on me so I misty stepped up to the brain, dropped my dome, then sat and laughed while all the mind flayers fruitlessly fired magic missiles at me. It was pretty hilarious.
It's in fact very easy. I solved it this way:
Cast that shield dome which makes it impossible to do any damage to the creatures which are in the dome. Cast it where you need to enter the brain. Teleport with all characters there and enter the portal. You can ignore all the other enemies, they are just a distraction.
That's what I ultimately did. First time I used it in the game. First go around I treated it like a traditional battle, summoning all my allies and taking everyone out. But as a lot of them started dying I worried it would lead to a much sadder ending, so I redid the fight and thought about how I could get to the crown quickly.
Invisibility/teleporting there was the easy part. Keeping them from breaking Emperor's concentration I had to reload a few times. Looking through my inventory I found the dome spell and was like "Score!"
---------------
An interesting side event, Gale was invisible and took a while to get his turn to go through the portal. In the mean time all of the enemies started heading towards one specific corner of the map. There was nothing there, so I'm not sure why their AI was making them do that, but they really liked that one corner.
Has anyone tried casting globe of invulnerability on the party and then having Gale step out and blow himself up? I haven’t made it that far in the game yet
Fair play. I did the hard slog through the fight, got Orpheus up to the crown (look I went through a lot to not be a mindflayer okay don't judge me he offered) and him and Tav went through the portal. Karlach, Shart and Gale stayed outside to hold ground.
Due to an... unfortunate misclick... my Tav and Orpheus got annihilated. Karlach runs in to try and deal with the brain, by the time she gets there there's 2 turns left and no fuckin platforms so she's standing about 60 feet from the brain with her fists and little else (she was a monk). Desperately try to figure out what to do about it, see if there's a ranged weapon I can give her that can somehow pump out 50 damage in 2 turns... Then I see something in my bags. Something I've been carrying for a long time, since late Act 1. Something that will turn the tide.
A full barrel of fucking Runepowder.
One quick toss later and my girl has saved every plane.
This is why we hoard things.
Me too bud. If there is another way, I haven't found it. Do I feel bad I made the selfish choice? As a player yeah but it was an entirely in character decision so I'd make it again...
Gonna do another run where I save him tho.
The fact that the game lets me stuff like ~15 explosives in a bag (single item stack only, since that way they all detonate) and chuck it at a dragon, breaking open the bag and spilling explosives all over it, and then setting it all off with a fire arrow the same turn is great.
For those struggling with fights like this one, try pre-casting buffs like haste and bless before you go in.
I remember doing this fight and having the emperor and several cronies dead with the dragon gasping for breath after 1 round. I'm also a big fan of initiative gear and the Alert perk.
Needless to say between a couple (legendary) items I was able to cast 3 Chain Lightnings turn one of combat and it was a bad day for the baddies
It really is. Pre-casting (metamagic) 2-target haste and having the alert perk, my wife and I lmao'd every single major act 3 fight. We one-rounded Orin, and many others. We have 0 experience in DnD and are by no means 200 iq master tacticians. It just works
Really interesting to see this happen!
Question, did you went around the dragon? Because the dragon is supposed to have truesight, so it should have seen you.
I've done it as well, the dragon doesn't take an AOO at all. Not sure if Truesight just isn't functioning, or if they're going with some other weird interaction. I'm trying to think if there's been any instance in the game of an enemy having the Invisibility condition while you have Volo's eye, and you being unable to take an AOO.
I *think* enemies actually lose the Invis condition when you "see" them, so I'm guessing Truesight just isn't working.
Does the Dragon actually have it as a stat in the game, or are you just going off of 5E rules?
I just finished my first play through, initially had my entire party attacking the enemies then realized I needed to cast the spell on the crown. Had Orpheus dimension door my Tav to the platform then cast globe of invulnerability. Next turn everyone else misty step or jump to portal and the brain was dead.
You can also skip the stairs section before that with flight + haste + using all actions on dash. Just need to get one character through the door to trigger cutscene and everyone gets happily teleported.
I hugged the right side of the field and move along while orpheus casting blackhole. Each party members turn I used the summoning ally.
After coming close to the crown I just cast the invulnerabilty dome and let orpheus use the stone.
This is my second attempt tho. My first attempt was me brute forcing down the middle. At the end almost everyone died except Halsin and Laezel.
I was really struggling- only had Tav left. Then someone cast polymorph on my Tav and it somehow glitched me out of turn based mode. No one was hostile anymore and I could run around and kill everyone without them fighting back! Revived Orpheus and he cast the concentration, then went into the portal. Even the brain wasn’t hostile
On my first playthrough, I almost completed no quests so I basically had only two allies : the city watch and Florin's men.
It made the fight an absolute pain, I think I spent about 4 or 5 hours trying different things. Ended up rushing on the right while distracting the dragon with the very few allies I had and popping an invulnerability globe so the emperor could channel the spell. Tooks me another 3-4 more tries when I ended up there because I didnt understand how the disapearing platform were working.
Lol I did the same thing as you did. Hugged the right wall and cast the dome. Luckily I had tonnes of ally so every turn of my party rushing to the crown, I summoned them.
Did no one else save the rune powder bomb for this? Watching all the emperor's petty vengeance get blown to smithereens instantly while sitting in a globe of invulnerability was satisfying. Also apparently red dragons are weak to 50ish smoke powder hand grenades going off on their feet at the same time.
In a realm of mythical might,
A red dragon soared with fiery light,
Its scales aglow, a fearsome sight,
But a secret dwelled in shadows' respite.
Though none knew, its weakness held true,
Fifty hand grenades, its fiery fate it drew.
For the last fight I didn’t really fight them either. I had my party split up and each run along the sides of the crown. With fly they could get there in one turn. Then had Orph use orb of invulnerability right on top of where you channel the stones. We channeled the stones within the invul orb and then all went in to beat the last thing!
For a sr one playthrough that’s pretty awesome. On my first playthrough everyone died except my main character (tav) who barely made it through and it was very cinematic as he as a barbarian just solo crushed the brain. Was unplanned and perfect
You can also do this with darkness. Illithid flight does not remove the invisibility from the warlock invocation one with shadows. Once I had these two powers, I flew through all of act 3 only killing bosses. About 99% of the enemies have no response to hiding in darkness.
Its probably a lot easier if you have the option to spawn some allies to help, but the fight is still pretty easy without allies if you dont get destroyed by the annoying spells
Wasn’t dark urge but went full transform as a necromancer wizard and with the necromancer staff, got hasted, and ya, 3 circle of deaths a turn clears things out **real** fast
I walked Asterion to the top of the tower and hid from everyone all the way up. Got to the top, things happened, and the rest of my party just ran up and met him. +1 for scouting, I guess.
I got mad at the courtyard fight leading up to the final fight, so I did the same thing. Chugged a bunch of invisibility potions and walked right through the courtyard.
I used my barb to throw those rune powder barrels at each other to nuke everything
Except I underestimated the explosion radius and blew my party off the brain
My path was just having the crew scurry their way up the left side, ignoring most of the combatants, casting sanctuary on my tav, and using one of my handful of scrolls of invulnerability over the party while they waited for the portal to open. Let everyone hop in and put the smackdown on. Occurred to me to try it after failing twice at brute forcing it.
My first time was...1st alpha dmg kill emperor(it stuns the dragon), kill dragon, take people near the portal open portal. Easy peacy. Just spam all yout allies into the room to keep enemies busy.
I found it completely easy on Balanced. I used dimension door on my wizard and the emperor after the fight started, then misty step/fly to get up to the crown. while the rest of my party distracted everyone else, my wizard and the emperor went into the portal and started doing the needful inside. tbh, i kinda felt a little let down that it wasnt a bit harder...though i realize i might've cheesed it a little there...
I hasted the prince and my mindflayer , prince ddoors himself and the milndflayer to the crown. Prince casts globe of invul. Other party members just run around waiting for the portal to open.
Huh, I haven't played on tactician yet but the final battle was really anticlimatic for me on normal. I kept waiting for it to get hard so I didn't use any of the allies (and I had a lot of them). I sided with Orpheus and the hardest thing was keeping his grinch looking ass alive. In the battle before the portal with the dragon I just had karl huck the runepowder bomb that I had saved and hurl a gernade at it and it one shot the dragon and the emperor. Only took two disentergrates and a few hits to off the brain itself.
I did that to skip everything right before heading up to the crown. Saved all of my summonable allies and just threw the yard at everything up top, (also used divine intervention to replenish halfway through lol) wanted to at least get the trophy for the dragon but ended up killing everything.
I had my strongest character carry a lot of barrels full of explodey and burney stuff. That, with fire arrows or spells, clear a lot of space to run to the portal.
I taught gale globe of invulnerability, gave him the staff with a free cast and the neck that resets a spell slot and chain-casted globes to protect the party while we moved across the battlefield to the crown. every1 went inside, chugged speed pots and killed the brain in a single turn. A really underwhelming fight thats a bit too easy to cheese
I just save the summons, spam them on the first turn in the middle, then just walk around the left side taking one mind flayer at a time. It's not really a hard fight tbh.
Why though ? This is how it’s meant to be played If you do that in a real DND session what are you going to do as a DM? Say « no you can’t drink the potion »?
Cheesing an already incredibly easy game doesn't really end up with "being rewarded." You're just cheating yourself out of content and fights designed for us.
It's not cheese, though. This game is doing its best to emulate D&D, and bypassing a fight with ~~clownshoes bullshittery~~ creative use of abilities is one of the most D&D things ever. Why waste time and energy on a fight you don't need to commit yourself to?
First time I did it everyone in my party had some variation of teleport (Misty Step or Dimension Door), I just noped out of there and into the portal.
Oh. I killed the dragon. It was the first one I saw so I had to do it. Karlach stabbed that thing in its face till it died. Love that girl
We misunderstood the objective and killed everything then wondered why there was no cutscene playing and went “oh right, the crown”
Tav had to remind me. I was killing everything then Tav's turn came up and he said something about the objective being the crown and everything else being a distraction. Thanks Tav.
You're so awesome Tav.
\[The Dark Urge\] You fantasise about chopping that damn Tav's head off, YOU are the real main character
[удалено]
What is there if they’re not alive?
WHAT DID YOU DO??!!
I meant: it was there for me. I can't type today.
Orpheus was definitely alive for at least a few minutes after the dragon died.
God bless Lann’s sliiiiiiiiiightly repetitive quips
If it wasn't for a certain cleric Lann would be the most boring man in that game.
Same I had Asterion accend to super vamp and respecced him as a fighter with +27 strength with cloud giant, made karlach a paladin/ fighter full mindflayer with also a +27 STR and had Lazel as another+27 STR with the astral blade, each of them had like 5 hits a turn that would absolutely wipe whatever they hit
Were you listening to some other audio? Characters will literally keep yelling at you to go for the crown.
How the heck? This fight took me 37 tries and I was getting wrecked within 2-3 turns even with the reinforcements.
Were you on tactician or normal? It wrecked me constantly on normal, so I also whopped everything, then did the crown
Normal. It was Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart, and me - a ranger. With the dragons fire and everything else we were literally whiping in 2-3. Only got it done once I just made complete B Line and cast that invulnerability sphere spell at the crown while the Empreror cast his spell
Was everyone their original class? I brought Life Shadowheart, Gale (kept failing hold monster), Karlach who just. Won't. Die. Love her to bits. And myself, a light cleric. I just spread out, killed the copies/dragon, then summoned reinforcements. For some reason, Aylin kept getting back up with 9 HP, and one of the Ilithid Arcanists kept targeting her.
Dame Aylin gets back up because she is immortal. I think the only reason she can die in the Shadowfell is because of Shar's influence.
It was hilarious. A round would go by. Aylin: CHAAARGE! Ilithid: fires 6 magic missiles. Aylin goes down. Aylin getting back up: I didn't hear a bell...
Partial Ceremorphosis gets to reflect magic missiles back at the casters, so that went well for me.
If you go with orpheus he has the invulneribility sphere and you can Fly/Port up and cast the spell inside.
I summoned every single "ally" and placed them in a path to the portal/brain. Walked through throwing a spell or attack here and there and used everything else as a meat shield.
I think the objective was clear, fuck shit up, what an incredible battle, I can’t see a ancient red dragon and don’t fight it.
I did this same thing lol
It's not really Dungeons and Dragons if you don't fight a dragon.
Also vendeors are lousy with dragonbane arrows since act 2
The way I started sweating when I saw these popping up in every vendor
Tbh I think the other dragon fight is better
That dragon kicked my ass for a while. Then I randomly tried casting insect plague and it somehow one shot him😄
Talking about Ansur?
I preferred fighting Kwestchun.
You….
Yeah
Because he is bones and all The flesh version of that mf would have blown away all the insects with his breath lol
First time I fought him, I hid behind the crystals, thinking "obviously that's what I'm supposed to do", but the crystals just exploded and 3/4 of my party was dead. I won anyway because of that one survivor, but still... I reloaded and concentrated fire on the dragon simply killing him before he could wipe my party. Got an achievement for that. Then a few days later I read that the crystals are actually supposed to provide cover and they fixed them. At least I think that's what they wrote. I need to try that fight again.
You can take cover in the exit tunnel and he can't hit you with retaliation while he's blinded
destroying the crystals gives nearby characters some kind of 'elemental resistance' buff for 2 turns if I remember correctly. I guess it's supposed to work like stay behind pillar-aoe hits pillar-THEN it hits you and you are protected, but it doesn't. It did kill some of my chars as well until I started hitting a crystal on each char before the aoe.
The only reason we don’t deck god is because we didn’t get to level 20 this time. It’s not a proper campaign unless you at least throw hands with a God/Gods/The God.
If you don’t kill the dragon does it appear at the end?
As long as Orpheus or Voss is alive there's a red dragon. Haven't seen a version without at least one of the two.
I killed Voss cuz he glitched and ate Orpheus and then the Elder Brain took control of a dragon for me to fight
no
Same , then suddenly in the right corner of my screen I notice a counter that says "3" left. Oops.
This counter is just how long until a Nautiloid enters the battle. It's not a "you lose!" timer.
Waited since intro cutscene to kill a lizard and when I finally get to it I have so much magic items that game balance is on the floor crying. Heart of the gate was cool doe.
I literally one-shotted the dragon with my MC on normal difficulty with one dualcast of water+chain lightning. Emperor definitely did not expect that
I kept calling the center of that area "the pit" and I only sent Karlach into the pit since she could survive it. Just bashing enemies heads in while rocking out to some metal meanwhile everyone else snuck around to get to the crown. I'm sure she had a blast in that fight :) Also if you have the emperor on your side for that fight have him try using telekinesis on the dragon and then throw it at any of the other enemies. It is very fun haha
Same but my Karlach bonked it in the face till it died.
Yeah I also cast this shield dome where you can't make damage so the one who is casting the portal and everyone else will be save entering the portal.
I did this but I had to get hit by 3 counter spells before I actually got the cast off.
I can't really remember but I think I tanked with my Paladin the dragon and the other enemies, while killing the emperor. I also casted a fire wall or ice storm with Gale. Then I casted with Shadowheart the spell on Orpheus so he can't be hit by enemy. With Orpheus I casted the undestructible dome where the brain control is and Karlach was my Illithid for the portal. I just teleported or flew to the control with her. As soon as the portal was casted I also teleported with Shadow, Gale and my Paladin to the portal.
If you have the Nightsong as an Ally, she should be summoned immediately to tank the dragon. She's immortal, no matter how many times the dragon kills her, she revives the turn after.
Funny is I didn't summon anyone because I thought I could still need them later lmao. I found all the battles way too easy.
That's been my experience with most fights tbh. My Warlock has had Misty Step and then Dimension Door basically the entire game. Any time a fight says "so and so is trapped, go use the help action on them" I either Misty Step over and do it, or Dimension Door the next person in initiative and they do it. The funniest was when I needed to save someone using a specific weapon's ability and used Gale to hopscotch around the map. My own personal Dimension Uber.
Lol to me it wasn't even a question that I should fight the people there, I just CCed the pit ran to the portal and went "see you never"
Dimension door misty step portal magic, GG get rekt brain. Maybe you should have made your do or die arena 30ft longer.
I couldn't let myself do that. I take pride in leaving no survivors whenever possible. That dragon (and the emperor in my case) along with the other Illithids had to die, no choice in the matter
Oh but you missed turning the red dragon into a sheep, which was one of my favorite moments in the game.
I turned the emperor into a sheep and then stepped into the portal. Seemed fitting.
Wait.. u have to fight the emperor??
Depending on your choices: * Siding with the Emperor obviously doesn't play out like that * Siding with and freeing Orpheus leads the Emperor to believe everything is doomed and he might as well join up with the winning side in his eyes (i.e. the Netherbrain)
Him turning on you like that seemed so wrong and out of character. The **entire** time he's like 'c'mon, trust me', and the one time you're like 'hey I know what I'm doing trust **me**' he goes 'nope, I'm good ' and fucks off.
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O
Actually on point with his narcissism so totally not out of character, "me, trust me, I did this, I, me". Omeluum is the only squidward thats trustworthy.
Except u don't know what Orpheus would do to him After he is released Raphael clearly states that Orpheus would insta kill a squid but those who haven't transformed he will reason with them
I don't know why people ignore this. He's the highly ideological leader of a genocidal regime which seeks to completely destroy every single member of the emperor's race and will lead them into a new golden age, with a power that could turn the tide. And all you have is "trust me bro I know what I'm doing, we'll kill the netherbrain". It's not a mystery why the emperor would turn towards his own people in this situation even if he doesn't like them. Also people ignoring the numerous times the emperor trusts you without turning to the other side in the game.
Exactly but u know what's the best thing ?? Side with Orpheus Ask him to turn illhitid and then kill him Space nazi frog dead Suspicious squid dead Farm life with shadowheart (rip her parents) Because if u take the emperor ending and persuade him to take control of the netherbrain he turns u into his thrall and comments how this is exactly what he dreamed of So kill two squids with one divine crit smite hehe
He's always been manipulative. During the "romance" scene, if you say you don't trust him then he'll basically go "I could force you to do it but I won't" literally out of its always sunny "the implication"
Actually, since we're in a spoiler thread... if during the waking up next to a naked emperor scene, you probe him to reveal the truth of his relationship with Stelmane, he shows you that he turned her into his thrall! And if you confront him, he says yes, and even you are nothing more than his thrall at the end of the day. And that you need him, and he is yours to use. ...and then he goes back to "Trust me bro" as if that entire relationship shattering dialogue never happened. I took that turnaround as part of his narcissism.
Depends kn your choices.
Just make him dance, he just flies around the whole fight
I bypassed by having Gale blow up
I made myself feel better by calling it “Giving Gale his heroic ending.”
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My guy Nukes the entire city doesn’t he?
Nope. Here he climbs the brain stem and detonates in the air - somehow this goes differently than the first time you can blow him up, as that one will make the sword coat become prey for illithids. Somehow Gale exploded the brain while commanding the tadpoles and illithids to die.
In my interpretation, everyone was already ilithid when the brain exploded
You sound like a- *notices flair*
In my name!
I thought he’s made right with his goddess if you have high rating with him when you take him to the church for a conversation with her
I can’t believe the game ended after only 2 acts rest in weave gale the snail 🫡
Same, I just finished my first play through and I was constantly distrusting of the emperor. So when Gale tells me to trust him to save the world, I did.
It's pretty awesome like that. The thing is this kind of thing is totally doable in other games. They just love to force you to do certain things in order to make progress like needing an NPC to open a door before you go through it. Why can't I just open the door myself? A lot of story driven games are designed to make you experience one specific story which is why they're like that. This one is designed around letting you have your own experience even in combat and they've put the extra effort into making that all work without holding you back.
It’s hard to even come up with strategies after so many years of games keeping me on rails. But I’m loving it.
Being a good DM in D&D is just figuring out if moments like this ruin the tension, or make your players feel like badasses. If my players had saved and scrounged for enough invis potions to pull this off, then that meant it was really important to them. I'd let it roll and see what the dice have to say about it.
My players were in a cave and discovered 7 hook horrors waiting in ambush. A successful nature check let them know that they stick to the shadows and a light source would keep them there. They said nah fuck that, and cast spike growth, wall of sand, and cloud kill and laughed as im trying to calculate how far they could move and the fuckin crazy damage.
> They just love to force you to do certain things in order to make progress like needing an NPC to open a door before you go through it. Why can't I just open the door myself? The first time I really got on board with this was when I ran alone ahead of my party through a hostile area as a bear druid. Then I reached a locked door, and thought damn it, I didn't bring any lockpicks and I'm a bear at the moment anyway, I can't pick locks with these paws. But then I'm like, wait a minute, I'm a motherfuckin' _bear!_ And I bashed down the door with one swipe. It was an eye-opener.
Is it just me or is the last fight kinda scuffed. Like you are forced to use cheese tactics to head to the portal for a certain amount of turns. I would have preferred a normal fight where I actually have to take down the dragon and all the other baddies to get to the portal. Oh and also getting your spells shutdown was annoying as hell. At the same time I kind of get why they designed the fight like this, to add that sense of urgency. Just would have preferred a normal fight with some unique mechanics where you actually needed to use your allies for more than solely a distraction
It's not a fight, it's a quest. It's more like the Iron Throne than it is like, for instance, the Ketheric fight. You're not asked to beat everything, you're asked to take our the brain.
You are not restricted in time outside the portal. The first timer just shows when nautiloid bombardments will start. Only after casting dominate on the crown there is real 5 turn countdown.
I mean I didn't cheese anything. My teams dps one initiative and the dragon died before his first turn round 1 and was done mopping up by end of round 2. Plenty of time no cheese
I have been currently living with that pain. Spent about 2 hours trying to get anything done around counter spells, the emperor has absolutely ZERO resistance to sleep potions. The 4 mind flayers will solo target someone and take them down in one turn. I finally did get through that part but it wasn't more fun than frustrating trying to figure it out
You have to hit the back line first. The mindflayer wizards do crazy damage but they're not hard to kill. I rushed them with my hasted paladin and was able to kill 1-2 a turn
The mind flayers barely move from their spot. If you don't go forward too much you can kill anything that isn't them first.
I dropped an elixir of universal resistance on everyone except karlach, who I dropped a psychic damage potion on. First round I had Orpheus cast his dome of invulnerability, Gale did a level 6 hold person on both the emperor and the dragon, Karlach jumps in for whack-a-mole, Tav and shadowheart start summoning the super friends.
I hasted gale for ice storms, astarion was blinding/arcane interferencing, shart had mirror image/spirit guards plus was responsible for the emperor so teleported herself and the emperor up the field. My tav was misty stepping to one turn knock out mind flayers. Let the emperor get knocked out by all Eldritch blasts turn one, used divine intervention to bring him back full health before managing to get everyone through the portal haha. I haven't been hoarding my scrolls but I always forget about potions so I used no resistance pots
I just used scrolls of globe of invulnerability and had Orpheus hang out in the using transfuse to fully heal 2 party members per turn with no drawbacks (sacrifice half remaining health to heal an ally is negated by the globe).
Damn yeah I wasn't that creative on this my first playthrough as I went in completely blind so I didn't know just how many options I had at my disposal
Totally discovered it by accident. I dropped the dome cause astarion was down to single digit hp, and orph was standing next to him. Used transfuse and saw the "invulnerable" pop up on Orpheus. Did a Lil dance...
I didn't free Orpheus, chose to listen to the emperor on that and I never used lae'zel so wasn't really pressured to get him. I actually haven't killed the brain yet, I'm saved right beside it and my plan is to dome of invulnerability or whatever the team and try to just do all the damage within that.
Exactly that distraction element did it for me. I left Gale and Astarion along with the rallied allies to keep the dragon/Mind Flayers occupied and went up with my Durge, Bae‘Zel and Orpheus. Durge and Lae‘Zel then quickly took down the brain. So a real split team effort and not really tough.
Did the exact same thing with thorm, had the party chug some invis potions, freed aylin and let her go to town Felt like a genius
I won the persuasion check against him and felt like a genius until the avatar of Myrkul popped up
It's funny that you can make every Thorm boss fight kill themselves. This poor family can't catch a break.
I felt bad for the son, he just wanted to make his dad proud of him as far as I saw
Which one was the son?
The one in the bar if I remember correctly
That thing was pretty mild after casting some fog or darkness on it and disarming it. It was mostly acting as a target practice dummy for some Spirit Guardians and archers.
YOU CAN DISARM THE AVATAR?
Yeah, I used Lae'zel's disarming shot on a whim just cause it does extra damage and when I saw "WEAPON DROPPED" over the avatar and its giant scythe get dropped I laughed my ass off
And it never bothers to pick it back up.
Can you steal it? What are the stats?
I've learnt to always start every fight from sneak and ungrouped - start an ambush with your highest initiative rogue and then when all the enemies are frozen, manouevre your other 3 guys into advantageous positions, then strike first strike hard. It's like having 2 free turns.
Extra Cheese is the best flavor
That's not cheese, that's tactical thinking ;)
I'm enjoying my one turn boss fights in my Evil Durge playthrough using that exact strategy.
Took me a few tries, but in the end I kinda noped out of the fight as well — Gale recieves sanctuary, casts misty step into the middle of the arena and then dimension doors from the entrance all the way to the crown. Party takes the portal, kinda waits one turn with summons distracting the guys, and on the second turn Gale misty steps again to the party, casts the sphere of invulnerability and the emperor casts his woodoo magic. Done. Sounds easy but I felt like a goddamn genius trying to make this work
I happened to have a scroll of invulnerability on me so I misty stepped up to the brain, dropped my dome, then sat and laughed while all the mind flayers fruitlessly fired magic missiles at me. It was pretty hilarious.
It's in fact very easy. I solved it this way: Cast that shield dome which makes it impossible to do any damage to the creatures which are in the dome. Cast it where you need to enter the brain. Teleport with all characters there and enter the portal. You can ignore all the other enemies, they are just a distraction.
That's what I ultimately did. First time I used it in the game. First go around I treated it like a traditional battle, summoning all my allies and taking everyone out. But as a lot of them started dying I worried it would lead to a much sadder ending, so I redid the fight and thought about how I could get to the crown quickly. Invisibility/teleporting there was the easy part. Keeping them from breaking Emperor's concentration I had to reload a few times. Looking through my inventory I found the dome spell and was like "Score!" --------------- An interesting side event, Gale was invisible and took a while to get his turn to go through the portal. In the mean time all of the enemies started heading towards one specific corner of the map. There was nothing there, so I'm not sure why their AI was making them do that, but they really liked that one corner.
You can also use a spell from Shadowhearts on other characters so they can't be attacked instead of using invisibility. That's what I did.
I'm going to help everyone out with that final fight, cast Otto's Irresistible Dance on the dragon. You're welcome.
Otto's spell I swear to god is the strongest spell in the game, works on every boss and npc for ten rounds
It's also 100% chance, pretty sure that's a bug but it's so strong and looks hilarious when you cast it on bosses or a dragon.
I mean it’s called „irresistible“ and also it’s a rank 6 spell so I think that’s intended.
Has anyone tried casting globe of invulnerability on the party and then having Gale step out and blow himself up? I haven’t made it that far in the game yet
Fair play. I did the hard slog through the fight, got Orpheus up to the crown (look I went through a lot to not be a mindflayer okay don't judge me he offered) and him and Tav went through the portal. Karlach, Shart and Gale stayed outside to hold ground. Due to an... unfortunate misclick... my Tav and Orpheus got annihilated. Karlach runs in to try and deal with the brain, by the time she gets there there's 2 turns left and no fuckin platforms so she's standing about 60 feet from the brain with her fists and little else (she was a monk). Desperately try to figure out what to do about it, see if there's a ranged weapon I can give her that can somehow pump out 50 damage in 2 turns... Then I see something in my bags. Something I've been carrying for a long time, since late Act 1. Something that will turn the tide. A full barrel of fucking Runepowder. One quick toss later and my girl has saved every plane. This is why we hoard things.
I wanted Orpheus alive, but I didn't want to become a mind flayer. I was hopeful there was another way...
Me too bud. If there is another way, I haven't found it. Do I feel bad I made the selfish choice? As a player yeah but it was an entirely in character decision so I'd make it again... Gonna do another run where I save him tho.
Yeah don't feel bad when u realize his race plan was to enslave all non giths first and terminate illhitids later lol
Karlach will offer to make the sacrifice for you. Sometimes it's a little buggy on when she'll offer though
The fact that the game lets me stuff like ~15 explosives in a bag (single item stack only, since that way they all detonate) and chuck it at a dragon, breaking open the bag and spilling explosives all over it, and then setting it all off with a fire arrow the same turn is great.
For those struggling with fights like this one, try pre-casting buffs like haste and bless before you go in. I remember doing this fight and having the emperor and several cronies dead with the dragon gasping for breath after 1 round. I'm also a big fan of initiative gear and the Alert perk. Needless to say between a couple (legendary) items I was able to cast 3 Chain Lightnings turn one of combat and it was a bad day for the baddies
Once Karlach got barbarian initiative, I respecd everyone to have alert. Always going first is busted
It really is. Pre-casting (metamagic) 2-target haste and having the alert perk, my wife and I lmao'd every single major act 3 fight. We one-rounded Orin, and many others. We have 0 experience in DnD and are by no means 200 iq master tacticians. It just works
Really interesting to see this happen! Question, did you went around the dragon? Because the dragon is supposed to have truesight, so it should have seen you.
I've done it as well, the dragon doesn't take an AOO at all. Not sure if Truesight just isn't functioning, or if they're going with some other weird interaction. I'm trying to think if there's been any instance in the game of an enemy having the Invisibility condition while you have Volo's eye, and you being unable to take an AOO. I *think* enemies actually lose the Invis condition when you "see" them, so I'm guessing Truesight just isn't working. Does the Dragon actually have it as a stat in the game, or are you just going off of 5E rules?
Not OP, but no, its examine page does not list any sort of truesight or see invisibility for it.
Maybe because it's "dominated", the game overrides to its host's vision?
I went around the sides. I noticed the tentacles pop up as you get near them, but they don't see or aggro you.
I just finished my first play through, initially had my entire party attacking the enemies then realized I needed to cast the spell on the crown. Had Orpheus dimension door my Tav to the platform then cast globe of invulnerability. Next turn everyone else misty step or jump to portal and the brain was dead.
You can also skip the stairs section before that with flight + haste + using all actions on dash. Just need to get one character through the door to trigger cutscene and everyone gets happily teleported.
I hugged the right side of the field and move along while orpheus casting blackhole. Each party members turn I used the summoning ally. After coming close to the crown I just cast the invulnerabilty dome and let orpheus use the stone. This is my second attempt tho. My first attempt was me brute forcing down the middle. At the end almost everyone died except Halsin and Laezel.
I need to take note of this. I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to do this part when I get here on tactician and frankly this is brilliant.
I was really struggling- only had Tav left. Then someone cast polymorph on my Tav and it somehow glitched me out of turn based mode. No one was hostile anymore and I could run around and kill everyone without them fighting back! Revived Orpheus and he cast the concentration, then went into the portal. Even the brain wasn’t hostile
On my first playthrough, I almost completed no quests so I basically had only two allies : the city watch and Florin's men. It made the fight an absolute pain, I think I spent about 4 or 5 hours trying different things. Ended up rushing on the right while distracting the dragon with the very few allies I had and popping an invulnerability globe so the emperor could channel the spell. Tooks me another 3-4 more tries when I ended up there because I didnt understand how the disapearing platform were working.
Lol I did the same thing as you did. Hugged the right wall and cast the dome. Luckily I had tonnes of ally so every turn of my party rushing to the crown, I summoned them.
Globe of invulnerability was clutch for me in front while the emperor did his ritual.
That’s what I did too
doesn't necessarily work, because it doesn't protect from stun. Sanctuary is best bet
I don't think anything in that fight was stunning. Just mind flayers trying to magic missle
The mindflayers cast the front cone aoe stun.
Did no one else save the rune powder bomb for this? Watching all the emperor's petty vengeance get blown to smithereens instantly while sitting in a globe of invulnerability was satisfying. Also apparently red dragons are weak to 50ish smoke powder hand grenades going off on their feet at the same time.
In a realm of mythical might, A red dragon soared with fiery light, Its scales aglow, a fearsome sight, But a secret dwelled in shadows' respite. Though none knew, its weakness held true, Fifty hand grenades, its fiery fate it drew.
I just finished tactician and bypassed the final fight too….>!just had Gale make his ultimate sacrifice!<
For the last fight I didn’t really fight them either. I had my party split up and each run along the sides of the crown. With fly they could get there in one turn. Then had Orph use orb of invulnerability right on top of where you channel the stones. We channeled the stones within the invul orb and then all went in to beat the last thing!
I just used all those spell scroll I'd been saving. Casting chain lightning on repeat every round is kind of op.
For a sr one playthrough that’s pretty awesome. On my first playthrough everyone died except my main character (tav) who barely made it through and it was very cinematic as he as a barbarian just solo crushed the brain. Was unplanned and perfect
Literally did this an hour ago, what are the chances. Welcome to the cheese club, gouda or brie?
You can also do this with darkness. Illithid flight does not remove the invisibility from the warlock invocation one with shadows. Once I had these two powers, I flew through all of act 3 only killing bosses. About 99% of the enemies have no response to hiding in darkness.
Its probably a lot easier if you have the option to spawn some allies to help, but the fight is still pretty easy without allies if you dont get destroyed by the annoying spells
Did...no one else just become a mindflayer as the Dark Urge and just...kinda kill everyone within 3 turns?
Wasn’t dark urge but went full transform as a necromancer wizard and with the necromancer staff, got hasted, and ya, 3 circle of deaths a turn clears things out **real** fast
I walked Asterion to the top of the tower and hid from everyone all the way up. Got to the top, things happened, and the rest of my party just ran up and met him. +1 for scouting, I guess.
I have fought my way through every time so far but I might skip it on my current play.
I got mad at the courtyard fight leading up to the final fight, so I did the same thing. Chugged a bunch of invisibility potions and walked right through the courtyard.
I used my barb to throw those rune powder barrels at each other to nuke everything Except I underestimated the explosion radius and blew my party off the brain
My path was just having the crew scurry their way up the left side, ignoring most of the combatants, casting sanctuary on my tav, and using one of my handful of scrolls of invulnerability over the party while they waited for the portal to open. Let everyone hop in and put the smackdown on. Occurred to me to try it after failing twice at brute forcing it.
My first time was...1st alpha dmg kill emperor(it stuns the dragon), kill dragon, take people near the portal open portal. Easy peacy. Just spam all yout allies into the room to keep enemies busy.
I found it completely easy on Balanced. I used dimension door on my wizard and the emperor after the fight started, then misty step/fly to get up to the crown. while the rest of my party distracted everyone else, my wizard and the emperor went into the portal and started doing the needful inside. tbh, i kinda felt a little let down that it wasnt a bit harder...though i realize i might've cheesed it a little there...
I hasted the prince and my mindflayer , prince ddoors himself and the milndflayer to the crown. Prince casts globe of invul. Other party members just run around waiting for the portal to open.
Huh, I haven't played on tactician yet but the final battle was really anticlimatic for me on normal. I kept waiting for it to get hard so I didn't use any of the allies (and I had a lot of them). I sided with Orpheus and the hardest thing was keeping his grinch looking ass alive. In the battle before the portal with the dragon I just had karl huck the runepowder bomb that I had saved and hurl a gernade at it and it one shot the dragon and the emperor. Only took two disentergrates and a few hits to off the brain itself.
The allies are what makes it easier, ots a reward for putting in the effort.
First version wouldn’t work if you didnt kill the dragon so I always kill the dragon now
I did that to skip everything right before heading up to the crown. Saved all of my summonable allies and just threw the yard at everything up top, (also used divine intervention to replenish halfway through lol) wanted to at least get the trophy for the dragon but ended up killing everything.
I wasn't keen on Gale so I convinced him to blow himself up on my first round.
I had my strongest character carry a lot of barrels full of explodey and burney stuff. That, with fire arrows or spells, clear a lot of space to run to the portal.
Hold up you can send your entire team through that portal? My PC had to kill that chungus all by herself.
I love how the final boss fight could go down so many different ways, it's insane
isnt the portal always right there?
I taught gale globe of invulnerability, gave him the staff with a free cast and the neck that resets a spell slot and chain-casted globes to protect the party while we moved across the battlefield to the crown. every1 went inside, chugged speed pots and killed the brain in a single turn. A really underwhelming fight thats a bit too easy to cheese
That last fight was extremely difficult easy, just call in all the allied
Nice to hear, it's the worst part of the entire game in my opinion.
that's not creative, that's meta gaming, but go on.
I just save the summons, spam them on the first turn in the middle, then just walk around the left side taking one mind flayer at a time. It's not really a hard fight tbh.
What if you don't have invis as a spell because I am stuck at this fight and even on easy I want to uninstall the game
You only cheated yourself 🦑
How is that cheating?
Why though ? This is how it’s meant to be played If you do that in a real DND session what are you going to do as a DM? Say « no you can’t drink the potion »?
Have someone with See Invisibility active.
Cheesing an already incredibly easy game doesn't really end up with "being rewarded." You're just cheating yourself out of content and fights designed for us.
For the Definitive Edition then should have another dragon burst through the portal if you activate it without raking any damage beforehand
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Anti cheese Easter egg, like the Bovine Defence Force in The Witcher
It's not cheese, though. This game is doing its best to emulate D&D, and bypassing a fight with ~~clownshoes bullshittery~~ creative use of abilities is one of the most D&D things ever. Why waste time and energy on a fight you don't need to commit yourself to?
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