How to kill Sceadu (BT3)

[One Horse Soap And Slay]

With four mages and a Bard, I found that Sceadu is impossible to hit after several dozen rounds. The bard breath and song attacks all miss, and all other offensive spells miss. Preclusion barely works, and it's impossible to get closer than 30' for a melee attack.

Not sure if this requires a special character class (to use a ranged physical attack like Arrows) or Rogue to hide in the shadows? Does Sceadu or any other boss require a rogue or other characters to complete the game? Is that why it's called "Thief of fate"?

[kaypy]

Here is I think the most recent discussion
https://steamcommunity.com/app/843260/discussions/0/3196988875697601257/

tl/dr: either add a rogue (and a fighter) or grind out several hundred experience levels.

Sceadu isn't so bad- a bunch of buffs and a song ax could probably do the job. And picking up a rogue before collecting the quest reward would be the best way to get them off to a rapid start.

[One Horse Soap And Slay]

Thanks! It looks like I'll have to level up a Rogue, but I'm not sure what good a Fighter will do (unless you mean for some kind of ranged weapon)? I already had a L28 Rogue in storage (Hide in Shadows=257). Not sure how much more I'll need to grind that one to kill Sceadu (or later Tarjan). I haven't really played Rogue, but I guess the strategy is that you need multiple consecutive Hide in Shadows to succeed, to target Range=30' in order to use a melee attack?

[kaypy]

Yeah every time they hide they get 10' further range, so eventually they can hit someone camped out at max range.

You need a fighter of some type to use certain quest items. Its fine if they are level 1 and die before you even reach the right dimension- you can resurrect them for the moment they are required. And once they are done you can trash them again.

The rogue is more difficult 'cause they actually need to fight somewhat. 28 might well be enough though, since they will stick to the shadows and be buffed out the wazoo and rez-ed as much as needed.

[Marcycle]

Originally posted by One Horse Soap And Slay:

With four mages and a Bard, I found that Sceadu is impossible to hit after several dozen rounds. The bard breath and song attacks all miss, and all other offensive spells miss. Preclusion barely works, and it's impossible to get closer than 30' for a melee attack.

You can also win this fight with a hunter with a high enough level that allows it to crit from afar, but as kaypy mentioned, you'll need a Rogue or an extremely high level spellcaster to win against another Foe you fight against later on in the game. Rogues that hide in shadows and perform a melee attack crit at a higher rate than hunters do with ranged attacks.

...and you'll need characters of various classes (fighter, spellcaster, rogue) to use items to get past certain locked areas in a certain dimension. The "fighter" can be a Warrior, Paladin, or Geomancer I believe.

[One Horse Soap And Slay]

Thanks -- I actually had no problem with just the L28 rogue. At that level, hide success rate is almost 100%, so he could just inch forward each turn, and only took about 3 swings to crit. It looks like I'm keeping the Rogue going forward. Even though the HP/AC are poor compared to my L60+ team, it seems from the back row, he can always Hide first in combat, and once hidden, I haven't seen him get hit yet, so he just gets free crits roughly every other turn, with infinite AC in hidden state.

[Marcycle]

Originally posted by One Horse Soap And Slay:

Even though the HP/AC are poor compared to my L60+ team, it seems from the back row, he can always Hide first in combat, and once hidden, I haven't seen him get hit yet, so he just gets free crits roughly every other turn, with infinite AC in hidden state.

Yup, further on the matter of AC/HP:
(1) You should be able to eventually max out any character's AC to -50 with a combo of good equipment, Traveler's Tune, YMCA/BASP, and SHSH. (although, if you have issues, you can also throw on a DIVA in combat to really cinch it),
(2) There will be Foes that can hit even -50 AC characters and Foes that can damage your characters with spells/breaths no matter how many Lucklarans, ANTI, and LUCK spells you stack on your characters, even with Breathrings and Luck Shields.

In most situations, you can just kill your Foes quicker than they can kill your characters, but in some situations you may need to heal, or even stack a few Bard songs to reduce damage (Archer's Tune for ranged, Melee March for melee, Spell Song for spells/breaths).

[gagnedd]

A rogue is by far the easiest and perhaps close to the only way to kill a number of bosses in BT3 - It is why it is aptly named "The Thief of Fate". If someone has won this game without a Rogue, I haven't heard of them personally. I suppose anything is possible though

[Gold Dragon]

It is not possible to defeat the full game without a rogue. Archmage spell Melee Men should get him close enough.

[Marcycle]

Originally posted by Gold Dragon:

It is not possible to defeat the full game without a rogue. Archmage spell Melee Men should get him close enough.

I remember reading in another thread of a player beating BT3 without a Rogue. They were seriously overleveled though, like level 500+ or something like that. Apparently at such high levels, ranged spells will hit Tarjan.

[Gold Dragon]

Well, without getting rediculous, it isn't possible.

[krickerd]

Originally posted by Marcycle:

Originally posted by Gold Dragon:

It is not possible to defeat the full game without a rogue. Archmage spell Melee Men should get him close enough.

I remember reading in another thread of a player beating BT3 without a Rogue. They were seriously overleveled though, like level 500+ or something like that. Apparently at such high levels, ranged spells will hit Tarjan.

500 lvl? Sounds like someone wrote the book "Fun with a hexadecimal editor", cuz I think it would take a lifetime to get that high. In the original, Tarjan could be killed with Earth Maw. I did that.

[Korgz]

Originally posted by Gold Dragon:

Well, without getting rediculous, it isn't possible.

This is wrong. About 12 rounds of Spellsong + nuke (with 4 nukers) was enough to kill Tarjan. Sceadu was no problem at all just with my normal party. If OP is having trouble with him is vunerable to several range weapons that insta kill since Sceadu is only 40 foot away.

Spellsong in the remasters is OP as hell.