The Devil's Own Centipede - yeah, man, tremendous!

[Gregorovitch]

I swear someone on this dev team has got a mind like Hanibal Lector.

I mean this mother bites at +19 To Hit, spits at -3 DEX a pop as far as I can tell, and packs AC25. OK, I can buy that, it's a boss and all. But what gets me is it's shear vindictiveness.

I see it goes for Amiri and 1-shots her. OK. I am expecting to go for Harrim or Valerie next. Oh no. It takes ANOTHER bite at Amiri. So now she's proper dead dead. "WTF?" I say. Now it turns towards Harrim - zap, he's down (well he would be against +19 wouldn't he).

So now I'm thinking OK, you son of a ♥♥♥♥♥, let's see how you like Valerie's AC35 HUH! Oh no. No sir. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ takes ANOTHER bite on Harrim as well as he's lying in a pool of his own blood reading himself his own last rites. So it's Harry curtains for Harrim as well. W-T-A-F?

I'd seen enough at this point. Time to trek back out to the valley, pitch camp and consider this situation. In some depth I suspect.

[Kyutaru]

Typically when you see something this colossal you deal with it from a distance. Ranged weapons and denying it the ability to come in close is the key. Its bark is worse than its bite; its bite hurts.

Also if you're having an issue with tanking, you always get Linzi or Jaethal in the prologue and they're both immortal. Even if killed they'll just stand back up after the fight. Jaethal is the better of the two since she's immune to many effects, can heal herself, and wears good armor. But I've used both as throwaways while my main party members ran or kited. It's kind of essential to do on harder difficulties, maximizing every advantage and cheesing every fight as much as possible.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Ranged weapons and dying

Wouldn't disagree with that - particularly the second part :)

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Its bite hurts a lot.

certainly wouldn't disagree with that assessment.

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Its bark is worse than its bite.

but I'm not sure you didn't get that one the opposite way round to what you meant

[Kain Yusanagi]

set crits to normal, set enemy difficulty to weak, set scaling to "normal enemies". Then you'll be against the proper P&P statted enemy, instead of a hyper-buffed advancement that shouldn't be fought until at least four levels higher, unless you absolutely munchkinned your characters.

[Nono]

I love it, my Mad dog best companion + The Crusher <3

[Gregorovitch]

I see I've got a scroll of lightning bolt (or some such name) with a complicated description aloing the lines of it lasts for so long and you don't have to cast it straight away and can cast it multiple times when your ready for some sort of action.

Sunds like this might be just the ticket but anyone know what this spell is all about as I can't recall anything like that from BG or NWN?

[Ace490]

Had the same feeling with the insane treant (+31 to attack, 2d6+48 damage, 31 AC, +13 Will saving, +16 Reflex saving, +27 Fortitude saving, regeneration, 20% concealment) during the final of Season of the Bloom. Some of these monsters are so overpowered and beyond everything else you encounter around the same level of experience that you ask yourself who thought that this is a good idea. I mean, I like it difficult and want a challenge but some of these opponents can only be defeated with extremely specific team set ups or spell leveling. Sure, every Joe Average could down the young Muhammad Ali (with a gun) but not in a fair fight so why does the game sometimes ask me to face an enemy with an extremely specific team but doesn't give me any info before the fight on what to expect at all?

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

but I'm not sure you didn't get that one the opposite way round to what you meant

I meant that literally its bark is -worse- than its bite. Its bite is awesome, its bark sucks.

You can summon some dogs if you want meat shields but overall this fight is exactly like one that was in Baldur's Gate with an even more resistant to melee enemy. You have to use the tunnels to kite the boss and not just fight it in its home lair where it has all the advantages. It's just a tactics thing.

[Ace490]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Typically when you see something this colossal you deal with it from a distance. Ranged weapons and denying it the ability to come in close is the key. Its bark is worse than its bite; its bite hurts.

Also if you're having an issue with tanking, you always get Linzi or Jaethal in the prologue and they're both immortal. Even if killed they'll just stand back up after the fight. Jaethal is the better of the two since she's immune to many effects, can heal herself, and wears good armor. But I've used both as throwaways while my main party members ran or kited. It's kind of essential to do on harder difficulties, maximizing every advantage and cheesing every fight as much as possible.

Wait, this is how Linzi's ring works... I always thought its bugged because she simply died like everyone else, no teleporting or immediate return to life.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Ace490:

Wait, this is how Linzi's ring works... I always thought its bugged because she simply died like everyone else, no teleporting or immediate return to life.

Oh you don't want the way it originally worked... she would leave your party and teleport back to Oleg's Trading Post. You had to walk BACK and get her. Then they made it so she only teleported to one of the map exits. Then they grew some sense and made it so she doesn't teleport at all. Far less annoying this way.

She doesn't die like everyone else, what you're probably seeing is that you have Death's Door enabled. If she dies a second time under that effect she'd normally be "true dead". But she's not. You don't need a resurrection to bring her back. She just stands up after any combat and loses the Death's Door debuff after dying twice. She's literally immortal.

[Ace490]

I normally reload before the end of the fight if someone actually dies since I can't pay these 6000 gold resurrection scrolls and don't have anybody who can cast it so far. Therefore, I expected some teleportation since both the ring's description and Linzi herself tell you that it "teleports" her away. Obviously, the devs didn't adjust the text to the new mechanism.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

i find if a monster focus fires one of my companions i dont want it to just back them out of combat and quite often they will focus on another party member, gives you a moment to chug a potion and step back in. That said this thing has a HUGE reach and the spit attack is an AOE poison blast, meaning you need to spread your party out a bit. Over all takes a bit of luck to beat... it's a nasty SOB...

[Gregorovitch]

What I love about this centipede that it's saying "Even if you manage to beat me, mate, you gonna be reloading anyway 'cos I'm going to perma kill anyone I can and you can't stop me ha ha".

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

What I love about this centipede that it's saying "Even if you manage to beat me, mate, you gonna be reloading anyway 'cos I'm going to perma kill anyone I can and you can't stop me ha ha".

Can't permakill Linzi or Jaethal. Or your ranger's pet. Or any pets.

You're at a point in the game where you have access to speed buffs. Outrunning the thing and resetting combat does not replenish its health. That's what the tunnels are for. They're a circle of doom for this monster with shortcuts for your slower characters to cut in. If he's chasing after one of your guys, that guy should not be fighting. He should be running.

You can beat this boss having taken not a single melee bite.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

What I love about this centipede that it's saying "Even if you manage to beat me, mate, you gonna be reloading anyway 'cos I'm going to perma kill anyone I can and you can't stop me ha ha".

Can't permakill Linzi or Jaethal. Or your ranger's pet. Or any pets.

I got Linsi (i'd have to trek back to Oleg's to get Jaethal) but.......you can't send Lindzi in against it on her own! You'd have to be a monster! Poor little Linzi. I can't bear her "Who'll write my book now?" routine anyway.

[DoppelGangster]

Originally posted by kainyusanagi:

set crits to normal, set enemy difficulty to weak, set scaling to "normal enemies". Then you'll be against the proper P&P statted enemy, instead of a hyper-buffed advancement that shouldn't be fought until at least four levels higher, unless you absolutely munchkinned your characters.

noted ;)