Something I don't understand or just a bug ?

[Matt]

Hi,

I'm fighting the Gormandizer in Shrine of Sacrilege.

Seelah is riding her horse, and crits on her first attack, this triggering some AoO (from my party).

Strangely, her second attack is unarmed (she's wielding a longspear as the screenshot shows), so she triggers an AoO from the Gormandizer (plus from some Babaus)... and her 3rd attack is unarmed too, hence some more AoOs... Which lead to her death.

I'm playing on Last Azlanti (core), so that bothers me quite a bit. I can probably finish the fight, and if Breath of Life doesn't work (not sure I can cast it while mounted), then hopefully Raise Dead will do...

Still... am I missing something or is this a plain bug ?

here is a screenshot[ibb.co]

[Matt]

Found the answer to my question.

Apparently, the guy has Adhesion, which "grabs" any melee weapon used to attack it and renders it useless.

I wasn't prepared for that...

Nonetheless, I was able to kill the guy (thx to the truely awesome Rowdy 1/Vivi 10 merc that's in my team) and BoL worked even though I'm riding a mount. Seelah is still unconcious, which is perfect since the fight isn't over... but it will soon be :)

[Goilveig]

You'll notice she immediately failed a reflex save after hitting with the spear. I don't recall this specific monster, but I do know there are monsters that can disarm when you hit them with a melee weapon. Unlike in tabletop where you could simply choose to end your iterative attacks, in this game they'll keep on going even if disarmed.

[Matt]

That's right, noticed the failed save.

I was anticipating this boss to be really easy (I just killed the dragon at level 10, which raised everyone to 11), but it turns out it had some tricks in its sleaves (or well, one trick, really).

[Matt]

To elaborate a bit about what just happened :

I played the game about 11 months ago (just after launch). Core, with a lot of savescumming. I really didn't feel like I could try LA on my first run (which I successfully did for Kingmaker, with the help of some guides) and as a result I didn't enjoy the game that much (I still enjoyed it, but much less than KM).

Few weeks ago, I decided to give LA a try for WotR. After a quick fail (Camellia dying to a crit in the very first dungeon, which had the advantage of warning me that NPC deaths CAN ruin a LA run), and a restart (wasn't happy with the party composition), I've finally managed to create a (4 mercs) party which is successful until now. If I was to do it again (which hopefully I won't), I'd probably make an even stronger party (replacing the MC Cleric with a MC Oracle being the most notable improvement), but the current party is nonetheless quite solid.

For this run, each time I know I'll face a boss, I load a save from my non-LA run, and check its stats/powers. Which helps preparing for the fight. I also watch some vids.

The thing is... that Gormandizer used to be, 11 months ago, another monster (a Tarry Demodand, to be precise) which is much less dangerous (no Adhesion power, for a start). When I encoutered the Gormandizer, I thought they had just renamed the demodand... my bad.

As a last note, playing now on LA, I really do enjoy the game *much more* than on the first run (simply because it forces me to really pay attention to what I'm doing instead of just blazzing through the story). In fact, I'd rate it as high as KM, possibly higher. Really a masterpiece. For that reason, I won't hold a grudge on the devolopers for introducing some traps that weren't there on the first run ;)

Edit : My bad, again. The Gormandizer was already there 11 months ago. Tarry Demodand is just another monster from another location. There's a post on reddit stating that there is a TD in Shrine of Sacrilege, hence my mistake. Seems that post (about the Sadistic achievement) has some erronous information.

[Stink Bug]

Regular Tarry demodands ARE supposed to have adhesion (befitting the creature name) so if you weren’t encountering it before you were either not noticing successful saves or the ability was bugged. It’s possible freedom of movement might protect you as well but I don’t know.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Stink Bug:

Regular Tarry demodands ARE supposed to have adhesion (befitting the creature name) so if you weren’t encountering it before you were either not noticing successful saves or the ability was bugged. It’s possible freedom of movement might protect you as well but I don’t know.

Thanks for the infos.

I just checked the Encyclopedia from my non-LA run, the unnamed TD indeed *had* Adhesion, so I should have been warned. I don't know how I managed to miss that, usually I try to pay attention to a monster's special powers since those can be quite significant.

On my non-LA run, I really wasn't paying much attention to saves and the like, since everything went fine in the vast majority of the fights and reload was always an option anyway.

Next time I encounter a TD, I'll try FoM to see if it works, just in case (with someone with low reflex saves and Last Stand, preferably). If it doesn't work, then the pets will have to do the job. Adhesion is quite a nasty ability, with iterative attacks. Or maybe every melee fighter should have Improved Unarmed Strike, a little bit like Blind Fight was almost mandatory in Kingmaker ;) (just joking, I won't waste a feat for such a small threat; however iirc, almost all my team had Blind Fight in Kingmaker, for a reason - Wild Hunt, if I'm not mistaken, but I may recall incorrectly)

[Raikon]

No freedom wont protect you. They are pain in the asses on 1 rolls. However that photo includes a brown fur transmuter. Just turn someone into an animal, and let them go to town. Doesnt work on natural weapons.

[Matt]

Ok, good to know. I had thought of natural weapons, but not of using the BFT to Beast Shape someone, so thanks for pointing that. What do you mean about the 1s ?

Do you mean that :

2+ --> The guy is dead so Adhesion not a problem
1 --> ****ed up

?

Edit : In fact, I'm considering taking Always a Chance for the Rowdy/vivi (which I never would have considered worth it in my non-LA run). He's by far the biggest damage dealer of the team, and on many occasions I just don't want to risk him rolling a 1.

[Raikon]

I was reffering to the save d20 rolls. Like if your character had a reflex of 66. You strike the terry, and roll 1-20. You roll a 1, auto fail, you lose your wpn. Whats worse is then you give them attacks of oppurtunity, and you take time to requip it. Terries are super annoying.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Raikon:

I was reffering to the save d20 rolls. Like if your character had a reflex of 66. You strike the terry, and roll 1-20. You roll a 1, auto fail, you lose your wpn. Whats worse is then you give them attacks of oppurtunity, and you take time to requip it. Terries are super annoying.

Ah ok, I get it, thx for the clarification.

Lightning Reflexes (Mythic) would help with that, I guess, but letting the animals do the job is an even simpler (and less costly) solution.