Sa'Hrul Balance

[Rivven]

This event just sucks. I've twice start demonologist in the Misty Coast and get hit by the event. The 1st time, he spawns in the top-leftern most spot. Second time he spawns roughly mid-map, but mind you, I'm still south-western most location. He's too far away each time due to special terrains and enemies blocking the path. Let's say the stars align and I just barely make it in time, and win the battle. I'm still out the x number of turns rushing to save my apprentice. The circle is getting stronger all the while, and I'm not getting a benefit to all the time lost.

I'm a demonologist, there should be a spell, an event, goblin unit sacrifice, etc. that I can do to keep delaying my apprentices soul from being devoured until I can reasonably make it over there. I'm fine with there being a cost to fighting for my apprentice, It's a demon lord, it shouldn't be easy, but in the same breath, there is no real benefit to letting him have it either. I feel with a delay option implemented, there should be an offer after x times for something that is actually pretty tempting. It would make the demon fall in line with other demon lords, and also the flavor text of the demon lords telling you to seek them out.

[Ronnie]

Well u could plan to play the game without the 1st apprentice and use him to farm resources making lodges instead, He is only 1 unit and u can get more apprentices later unless the Demon Lord goes for them as well later.

[Rivven]

Originally posted by Ronnie:

Well u could plan to play the game without the 1st apprentice and use him to farm resources making lodges instead, He is only 1 unit and u can get more apprentices later unless the Demon Lord goes for them as well later.

That is essentially what I do right now. It's just a huge loss though. That 1st apprentice is generally level 6ish when you have 43 turns to save him. The apprentice is also a demonologist, so he really synergies with your troops. Two excellent buffs I've seen on him are demonic slaughter giving all troops a +2 attack for each enemy he kills, and another that gives every demon a +3 attack for him being in the stack. I'd probably feel better if my next apprentice was also a demonologist, but it still a heavy hit for the beginning of the game.

[Ronnie]

I am sure they will likely do some tweaks with the Demon Lord. Personally I'd rather the Demon Lord just come after to hunt you down instead of take away your apprentice. Maybe the Apprentice can be imprisoned for some additional time thereafter to give some time to save him with another stack may be a good idea. Another idea is to eat away and get your main army making them weaker until they are gone entirely unless you strike a deal with the Demon lord to give your apprentice to the Demon lord instead.

[zemuron]

In my opinion the problem is that you always got 60 turns regardleg of difficulty.
On balanced, I kill him without any great haste.
But on the highter difficulty it's a walk on a tightrope I don't risk and just let him die.

That being said, I quite like the idea that he gets other and really cool stuff on lvl up because the Demon tries to take over. They done a lot of things right in that dlc, it just needs a few tweaks.

BTW: There is a Spell in Occultism whitch gives you 50% White Resist, an he does only white dmg.

Or well, they could just let him always spawn beneth Sevenkeep, the randomness is more of a problem than the fight itself.

[Snickers]

I like it honestly. Its challenging, but I was more capable than I thought.

The game feels too chill normally imo, it was fun to see what I could do under pressure.

[Garatgh Deloi]

I flew over with my tower :P Terrain matters not in such a case.

For the battle itself, i was playing a necromancer and their white damage is a issue, the skeleton mages boon ability that gives white resistance was vital, so am i glad i had 2 skeleton mages in my army.

[Ronnie]

The Demon Lord does not seem to take my alchemist unlike the new DLC class.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Originally posted by Ronnie:

The Demon Lord does not seem to take my alchemist unlike the new DLC class.

The demonic influence story/event triggers regardless of class (assuming that demon lords are turned on off course). I got it as a Necromancer.

That said, when the event triggers seems somewhat random, had it early in some campaigns but got it very late in others.

[Ronnie]

Yes, I just got it just now and saw that. It happened a bit later unlike last time in which it was early.

[Kaysoky]

If you put Uram the Red in your campaign (or if he spawns as one of the 4 random circle mages), then the pool of demon lords increases by 1.

This means one of them will not spawn. I'm not sure if the game always exchanges Sa'Hrul for Azra'Zil, but my one game with Uram didn't have Sa'Hrul.

[=(FGR)=Sentinel]

Originally posted by Ronnie:

Well u could plan to play the game without the 1st apprentice and use him to farm resources making lodges instead, He is only 1 unit and u can get more apprentices later unless the Demon Lord goes for them as well later.

The thing is, if you do kill that specific Demon Lord you get an artifact that, when fully leveled, allows the holder to use focus abilities for free. This is something that's pretty powerful, especially on the two alchemist apprentice options since it means they can throw healing potions for free and heal 50-150 per turn on other units. It's useful for others too, but it's not as laughably broken.

[easytarget]

After somehow missing this event a couple runs I've found it and had no success defeating him after numerous tries.

Whatever is offered by defeating him is something I'll just have to live w/o because as the OP stated at the top, this event sucks.

[sandman25dcsss]

Some demon lords give amazing rewards. I got +3 amplifier this way, before DLC only heart of dragon had the same boost. It allows to build the most powerful room extensions which are unreachable otherwise (unless you are alchemist).

[Kaysoky]

What class and army composition are you using?

As a demonologist, it seems pretty easy since your starting apprentice can summon Ashen Ones. As long as you get a source of Cleanse and increase his focus, you can easily outnumber Sa'Hrul 3 to 1.

As an alchemist, you start with human troops, making Sa'Hrul deal much less damage, so even without disposable summons, it's doable. And you can always summon flame elementals.

I imagine it might be harder as a Necromancer, since you'd have to make a non-undead army. And as an Artificer, you don't have as much of a power spike in the early game.

[Sir Clavius]

On my second game I found out that its easy to kill this demon lord with pure dwarf crossbow army. These guys does a lot of damage so its easy to focus and kill very quickly these demon duplicates and later on - the real demon.

But yeah, on harder difficulties - we should get a bit more time.