"How do I beat _____?" ; Stupid Gimmick Encounters Cheat Sheet

Wondering what spells you should memorise for upcoming battles? What equipment you should buy? What gimmicks the bosses and mini-bosses will throw at you? Wonder no more! This cheat sheet of recommended spells and town purchases will solve the gimmick of the toughest fights in Wrath of the Righteous.

Introduction and updates from Kingmaker

Mind the dust, this is a work in progress guide.

Background
In my previous guide for Pathfinder: Kingmaker, How to win at Pathfinder: Tactical spell-casting for the astute adventurer , I wrote at length on how the most difficult enemies have specific gimmicks and the characters with the tools to beat those gimmicks are spell-casters. If you want a better understanding of how to cast spells effectively to win fights yourself, I highly recommend reading that guide.

Since Kingmaker, a few spells have been updated:
- Protection from various Alignments: Now blocks Domination and Charm affects! You're going to need it.
- Holy Aura: No longer prevents all mind-affecting spells, only domination and charm. Use Shield of Law to block all mind-affecting spells instead.
- Greater Command: Wow, what a great new control spell for clerics! Use it and abuse it.
- Mind Blank now blocks True Seeing. This is a HUGE buff as it makes Greater Invisibility and Mirror Image viable vs enemies with True Seeing.
- And a huge number of mythic spells, too many to cover here.

Now
THIS guide on the other hand was borne out of helping someone plan out how to beat specific gimmicks in battles. Isn't it nice to have foreknowledge of what is coming up so you can prepare you spells and purchases in town accordingly? This is that guide. I hope this helps!

If I missed any particular gimmicky fight you'd like help with, do drop a note in the comments. Suggestions of alternative solutions are also welcome.

Buffing guide

Looking at folks's complaints, I'm getting the impression that a lot of folks don't buff nearly enough. Here's a quick guide to help you buff your way to victory!

Stacking bonuses
The same type of bonus does not stack (except dodge and racial bonuses). So if you have a +1 morale bonus to hit from Bless, it won't stack with the +1 morale bonus to hit from Aid.

I'm going to try of the most basic buffs you should be using.

Early game: Buffs from spell levels 1 to 3
In the early game, save the 1 round per level spells for bigger fights.

Cleric/Oracle:
- Bless (morale)
- Shield of Faith (Deflection)
- Bull's Strength (enhancement)
- Bone Fists
- Prayer (Luck)
- Archon's Aura

Druid/Shaman
- Magic Fang/Greater Magic Fang
- Cat's Grace
- Barkskin

Arcane:
- Enlarge Person (Size)
- Reduce Person (Size)
- Mage armor (Armor)
- Shield (Shield)
- Mirror Image
- Displacement
- Haste
- Heroism (morale)
- Rage (morale. Not on spell casters!)

Specific solutions
- Remove Fear vs fear
- Remove Disease vs nauseate/disease
- Protection from Evil vs dominate
- Delay Poison, Communal vs poison and Stinking Clouds
- Resist Energy, Communal vs Fire/Cold/Lightning/Acid/Sonic
- Owl's Wisdom (for Will save)
- Bear's Endurance (for HP and Fort Save)
- Mass Feather Step (if you like using difficult terrain)

Mid game: Buffs from spell levels 4 to 6

Cleric/Oracle:
- Burst of Glory (sacred, to attack)
- Divine Power (luck)
- Eaglesoul (sacred, to AC & Strength)

Arcane
- Stoneskin
- Animal Growth (size)
- Greater Heroism (morale)

Bard
- Good Hope (morale)

Specific solutions
- Freedom of Movement for hold, grease, etc. etc.
- Protection from Energy, Communal vs Fire/Cold/Lightning/Acid/Sonic
- Deathward vs Energy Drain and Negative Energy
- True seeing, Communal
- Crusader's Edge; vs demons
- Sacred Nimbus (vs evil spells such as Hellfire Ray)

Late game buffs
Arcane
- Legendary Proportions (size)
- Seamantle (cover)
- Foresight (insight)

Specific solutions
- Holy Aura vs Domination/charm
- Shield of Law vs Mind-affecting
- Icy Body vs stunning, crits, ability score damage, etc.


Cleric Domains
- Good: 1/2 level sacred to rolls, one round)
- Luck: advantage on rolls, one round)
- Law: roll 11, one round)
- Nobility: +2 Morale and +2 Insight to rolls, duration half level)
- Community: Wisdom modifier competence bonus to attack rolls, 1/day)
- Madness: +1/2 damage to either attack rolls, skill rolls or saves, 3 rounds
- Knowledge: advantage on one roll, duration 1 minute
- Strength: + 1/2 level enhancement to melee attacks

Act 1 Part 1: Mongrel Village & Shield Maze

Not really so much going on here. Most battles can be won by spotting enemies early (set up "Enemy Sighted" in autopause) then open the fight with "Charge" ability with Seelah and Camelia before enemies have a turn.
You don't really have many tools available as a caster, and the Shield Maze doesn't really ask for much either. Do consider buying the Quiver of Cold Iron Arrows for your archer and save them for creatures who need it.

Large Water Elemental
Oh, right. Kind of forgot about this guy. This optional mini-boss doesn't have many special tactics other than doing bonus cold damage. There's a Resist Cold potion somewhere in the Shield Maze, so you can wait til you get it before you face the Water Elemental. Other than that, buff Seelah like defensively with all the potions you find in the Shield Maze then tank and spank. Like I said, not much more you can do right now in prep.

Act 1 Part 2: Kenabres

WHOA! There is so much to prepare for in the city and what you purchase in the Defender's Heart is going to depend on what level you decide to take on each challenge.

Recommended spell memorisation and shopping summary:
- Cold Iron weapons/arrows
- Resist Acid, Resist Lightning, Resist Fire, Delay Poison
- Burning hands/ Acid & Burning flasks
- Faerie Fire/ Glitter Dust/ See invisibility
- Optional: Gloves of the Neophyte (optional), Lesser Extend Metamagic Rod, Wand of Bless

Topaz solutions
Alchemist who throws acid bombs, guarded by mimics.
- Resist Acid. If Camelia is already level 5, she can cast the communal version of this spell for you.
Why not Protection from Acid, Communal? The scroll is a lot more expensive, for one. Secondly, the alchemist throws so many bombs that he'll burn through your Protection too quickly. Resist version has no limit to the amount of damage it blocks.
- "Dispel magic, targeted" would be nice to remove the Shield spell, but probably too expensive and it can be tough to make the caster check.
Still a tough fight since you have to fight the mimics as well (tank em with Seelah while the team bum rushes the alchemist), but Resist Acid will make the fight a lot more doable. It would be nice if Anevia, who gives you this location, could warn you what to watch out for!

Silken Thread Atelier
Kineticist with lightning blasts.
- Resist Lightning.
Again, Anevia, your intel sucks. Thankfully, the kineticist isn't nearly as deadly as the alchemist. Maybe it's because her body guards are less of an issue than the mimics and no AoE splash?

Tirabade residence
Succubus
- Protection from Evil for male party members. You may still have some potions left over from the Shield Maze, those will do if you don't want to memorise the spell.
- Either Faerie Fire, Glitterdust or See Invisibility, Communal. These scrolls which counter invisibility are not available for purchase, so you may want to either bring Daeran who has Glitterdust as a once per day ability (how appropriate lol) or wait till you can cast one yourself.
First Anevia, now Irabeth gives us mini-boss encounters but no intel to help us prepare? That's the third nasty surprise this couple has sprung on us. *shakes fist*

Tower of Estrod
Eh. The mage does attempt to throw a fireball at your party, or he would have had the chance to if you hadn't killed most of his backup with the two pillars in the environment. This fight isn't really high on most folk's complaint list.

Pitaxian Wine Cellar
-Wights. Ugh, energy drain attacks. Probably not worth buying a scroll of Death Ward as they are susceptible to Grease.

Market Square
This is a large area, so there are a large number of pain-in-the-butt encounters.

a) Demons ahoy
- Cold iron. Lots of demons with DR 5/cold iron, so have a spare cold iron weapon and buy cold iron arrows. Avoid using energy spells, especially lightning, disease or poison (that includes Stinking Cloud).
- Delay Poison. You should be pretty familiar with Dretchs and their Stinking Clouds by now, right? Thankfully Delay Poison has a long duration.

b) Rat swarms
- Burning hands/ alchemical bombs does extra damage.
- Bludgeoning damage does full damage to tiny swarms.
Seelah is immune to disease at Paladin level 3, so she gets to tank them.
Gloves of the Neophyte sold by the barkeep at Defender's Heart will help Ember burn them down with Burning Hands.

c) Shadows
Will appear after fight with zombies outside starts.
- Lesser Restoration. Shadows have touch attacks which do strength damage. Whether you're using spell slot, scrolls (cheaper) or potions (more expensive), you'll need to undo the ability damage with Lesser Restoration or resting.
- Touch AC boosting. Seelah isn't actually any good at tanking the Shadows since they use touch attacks. Lann actually has better Touch AC, but he's likely too busy shooting to tank. Anyway, here's a list of ways to help boost Touch AC: Protection from Evil OR Shield of Faith (do not stack with each other), Cat's Grace and Reduce Person (& Owl's Wisdom for Lann), Crypt Raider's Armour Scale Mail from Shield Maze, toggle Fighting Defensively, Blur or Displacement (indirectly). Have Camelia or Ember use Protective Luck on the tank.
Prayer and Bane may help reduce the attack bonus of the Shadows. Well, it's worth a try!

d) Vrock
Summoned by completing the magic circle in a house. The Vrock will then teleport itself outside near broken tower.
- Smite Evil, Bless Weapon. The Vrock has DR Good rather than cold iron. Seelah can bypass this with Smite Evil, everyone else needs Bless Weapon potions which is strangely cheaper than the scroll counterpart at Defender's Heart.
- Bless. The Vrock's nasty DoT can be removed with a Bless spell. There are Bless wands which sell for super cheap at Defender's Heart.

e) Shadow demon
Found in a house with a dark basement. There is a body with a scroll of Faerie Fire and See Invisibility.
- Faerie Fire, Glitterdust, See Invisibility. To remove the invisibility.
DON'T USE THE FAERIE FIRE SCROLL ON THE GROUND. If you cannot cast Faerie Fire yourself, you'll need someone with good Use Magic Device skill to use this scroll on Othirubo.
- Ghost touch. Incorporeal, so half damage without ghost touch. Finean and Camelia, essentially.

f) Brimorak
Found in the house which has a burnt corpse just outside.
- Resist Fire
Fireballs and Burning Arc at this point in the game are pretty deadly. Resist Fire or Protection from fire on the whole party will make a huge difference.

g) Optional Nabasu
Found after defeating the necromancer then completing the tavern defence.
- Death ward. The Nabasu has a negative levels inducing gaze attack, Fort save to negate. Unfortunately there's little hope of immunity to gaze attacks at this point in the game. Death Ward scrolls are expensive, so use it on your front-liner and keep everyone else back.
- Freedom of movement & Remove paralysis. For Mass Hold Person. You probably don't have enough scrolls to cover the whole party, so try to separate out the party so not everyone get's hit with it.
Generally, folks send Seelah to deal with the Nabasu in close combat, buffed with Freedom of Movement and Death Ward as well as an assortment of the usual buffs. Otherwise, playing keep away with entangles and spike stones and the like also works.
Finally, Ember's slumber followed by a Coup de Grace can work.

------

Gray Garrison Assault

a) Another Succubus
- Protection from Alignment. Again.

b) Othirubo
- Resist Fire, Communal. Surely by now you have access to the communal version?
- Faerie Fire. To counter Blur. Or was it Displacement? Whatever, if you don't have access to Faerie Fire, I really hoped you saved the scroll from the Shadow Demon room as Glitterdust/See invisibility does NOT help.
If the crusader wizards following you around aren't dead yet, they're most like dead this fight lol.
BTW, this is the guy responsible for all the firebombs the arsonists use to burn the tavern.

c) Insect plague summoner
- Burning hands/ alchemical flasks. Insect plagues MUST be killed with AoE attacks, or Natural Attacks while using the amulet from Ulbrig. Alternatively, you can shoot the summoner past his large entourage before he can summon so much pain.

d) Minagho
- Remove Fear, Protection from Evil & Unbreakable Heart. To help counter Phatasmal Putrefaction. Remove Fear does NOT suppress it, but adds +4 Morale bonus to the saving throw which helps. Precast Unbreakable Heart on the party members with the lowest Will saving throws using the Lesser Extend Metamagic Rod to prevent party members from falling unconscious. You'll get your spell slots back once the fight starts.
- Lightning resistance isn't needed thanks to the mythic power buff you get during the fight.
Minagho puts up a good fight, but generally this fight doesn't give most people too much trouble thanks to the huge mythic power buff.

Act 2 Part 1 Until Leper's Smile

Crusader's Camp
For the love of Mike, bring the Piece of the Holy Symbol and Five Magic Essence to Story-Teller immediately! He'll disappear as soon as you talk to Queen Galfrey. Completing the Covenant of the Inheritor, if you decide to keep it rather than give it to Queen Galfrey, means no more need for Bless Weapon, cold iron weapons and arrows, as well as give your party a boost in spell penetration. It's one of the best items you'll get in a long time.

But should I give it to Queen Galfrey? Oof, info on this is rather sparse. Some folks say she will survive a battle in the far future if you do, but you can give it to her in act 5. Whether or not you want her to survive is another question. In any case, no need to even show it to her until Act 5.

Shopping recommendations: Wand of reduce person (1), Wand of enlarge person (1), Headband of Wisdom +2 for Sosiel the Great Domain Lord of Doom (tm), Lesser Extend Metamagic Rod

------

Martyr Zacharius's Cemetery
Undead galore. Nothing too tricky here but lots of fights, so don't be afraid to commit more resources. Zombies have poor reflex saves and DR/Slashing and poor reflex saves, whereas skeletal archers have DR5/Bludgeoning and poor will saves. Both are immune to any and all mind-affecting spells.

Houndheart campsite
Babau can't sneak attack you if you're not flanked or flat-footed. So try your best to engage enemies separately. Otherwise, pretty straightforward fight at this point.

Drow ambush
- Protection from Arrows, Communal to counter the archers. Woljif should be able to cast this. Stinking Cloud + Delay Poison, Communal cheese for the rest. Drow have high reflex saves, so don't bother with grease.

Nightingale grove
Glitterdust/Faerie fire on the leader's location. Resist fire is enough to protect from the alchemist. Otherwise, nothing that Stinking Cloud + Delay Poison, Communal cheese can't handle.

Moondance meadow
The plagued Smilodons are not a joke. On Core they attack 5 times a round with +22 to hit and about 14-20 damage per hit, all 5 of which they can do on charge thanks to pounce. They're undead and thereby immune to any mind-effects and stinking cloud, and they carry the demonplague which is hard to remove. Their saves are Fort +6, Reflex +9, Will +12. Slow would have been ideal to stagger them and hence stop their 5x attacks, but their Will save is too high. Snowball *could* work, but their weakest save is still +6.
- Ultimately, they have much poorer defences compared to their offense. Personally I charged in real-time and took them out before they could attack. I triggered the third one by spotting it from the cliff, so it didn't have a straight line to pounce on me. You can also spam vanish/invisibility to get up close and start wailing away on them in turn-based mode in the ambush round.
- Alternatively, they have no way to counter difficult terrain. Keep away tactics using webs and spike stones could help slow them down while picking them off can work.
- Remove sickness can help prevent the disease, Remove Disease can attempt to dispel it.


Reliable Redoubt
-Magic Weapons. Gargoyles have DR 10/Magic, but surely you have access to plenty of magical weapons by now.
Stinking Cloud + Delay Poison, Communal cheese. Oddly enough works just fine on gargoyles.

Morbid Ridge (DLC)
- Stinking Cloud + Delay Poison, Communal cheese. The goblins have universally bad fortitude.
-Death Ward. The Barrow Wights on the other hand have level-draining attacks. Thankfully there is a Potion of Death Ward hidden near the water outside the cave entrance.
The Barrow Wight Commander has an astoundingly high AC of 36, even on Core difficulty. It's touch AC is much less so touch attacks like Cure Wounds can work.
-Dimension Door to some loot. Go for the loot in the back across the ravine first, there are extra scrolls of Dimension Door you can use to jump to the loot on the platform and back.

Nameless Ruins
Ghouls with their paralysis attacks, a few plagued smilodons and plagued bears, gargoyles.
Stinking cloud cheese works on the gargoyles, a few Remove Paralysis and Freedom of Movement can remove issues with ghouls.

-----
There's a short encounter with 3 Babau on the direct path from camp to Leper's smile.

Leper's Smile
All Vescavators fly, so leave out Grease and the various Pit spells. They all have Blindfight on Core too, so Displacement/Greater Invisibility is of reduced effectiveness.
Purchases from camp: Bracers of Hard Landing will help. Rods which boost AoE damage spells may also help. Protection from Arrows grants DR vs anything that isn't melee, and swarm don't melee apparently, so use it to give your whole party DR10 against the swarms.
Borrow Ulbrig's Swarmbane Clasp if you don't bring him.
You should be prepared *not* to bring Sosiel for this battle as he's the best choice for an out of combat encounter.
- Cook Onion soup for the bonus to saving throws.

The gimmick is that spending time to loot rather than killing the queen will cause army deaths and morale loss. You can technically get away with a bit of looting, but the loot is crap. I wouldn't bother but you do you.

Vescavator swarms require special preparation.
- Blunt damage to do full damage against the Tiny swarms.
- AoE does increased damage, but Vescavator swarms have Resist Fire and Lightning 10. I hope you have Ascendant Element or alternative elements. They also have 16 spell resistance on Core and Fort/Refl/Will saves of +4/+9/+5. Shout spell which is AoE and targets Fort will work well.
- Swarms are immune to poison, and therefore immune to Stinking Cloud cheese unless you have the Corrupter Mythic Ability.
- Mind-affecting spells work as Vescavators are outsiders, not vermin. They're still immune to single target spells, so use AoE like Color Spray.
- Remove Sickness and good fort saves on your front-liners will suppress/save from nauseated effects.
- Unbreaking Heart and good will saves/anti-compulsion will suppress/save from confusion effects.
Vescavators are chaotic evil in case you want to cast Protection from Alignment.

For the Guards and Queen,
- Not swarms, so no need to restrict yourself to bludgeoning.
- No Resist Fire or Lightning, strangely. However, Spell Resistances are Guard 19, Queen 25 on Core. Fortitude/Reflex Will saves are Guard +6/+13/+10 and Queen +13/+17/+17 on Core.
Generally, hitting them is more helpful than casting offensive spells. So don't bring a full caster team.
- Stinking Cloud works because both are NOT immune to poison, strangely.
- Resist Acid, Communal is a must.
- Queen and Guard are extraplanar, so are instantly killed with Dismissal. Good luck landing it with their high will saves though.

Caverns beneath Leper's Smile
- More vescavator swarms and guards, same tactics.
- Wights. Death ward will prevent energy drain, restoration or rest will/may cure the negative levels from it.
- Vrock. Memorise Bless to remove the spores
- Derakni. Unbreakable heart for confusion, Delay poison for poison and Death Ward for Enervation
- Hunter retriever boss. 5x attack at +21 attack 10-20 damage each, as well as a ray every turn; 12d6 fire, 12d6 cold, 12d6 electricity or petrification ray. Kind of like a plagued Smilodon except it's a construct so it's immune to most status effects. Various elemental protections and Stone to Flesh can help, but like the Smilodons I find that rushing it down in the ambush turn works best.
Technically extraplanar, so a lucky Dismissal can auto-kill it too (+9 to Will save).

Act 2 Part 2 Post Leper's Smile

Currantglen (DLC)
Please don't touch the loot the druid spirit is protecting untl you have laid him to rest peacefully.
- Remove fear. Spirits may try to cast Cause fear on your party.
- Protection from Evil/chaos. Succubuses AND Incubuses will try to dominate you.
- Death ward. Prevents the damage from Mass Inflict Light Wounds from Vermlek. Also prevents Succubus trying to drain levels (you do get a saving throw though).
- Slow. To counter Haste.
- Grease for Vermlek, Snowballs and Shouts for Succubus.

Underground hideout
- Glitterdust. Prevents invisibility of wisps
- Stinking cloud + Delay Poison for wisps. Fey have poor Fortitude saves.
- Resist Lightning, Communal. For wisp lightning
- Protection from Evil/Chaos for Incubuses.
Shivial, the big boss himself is an incubus cleric. Well, once his front-liners are cleared in spite of his health he isn't really a big deal due to low AC. He has a ton of buffs but his caster level is so high compared to your party it's unlikely you're going to be able to dispel him.

Crusader Camp ambush
- For some time, you're going to be limited to Seelah, Camelia, Lann and possibly Ulbirg if you have the DLC, and Nenio will join you very, very soon. So take that into consideration before stepping into the camp after taking out the fort. Woljif will be gone for some time, so take the best stuff off him before triggering this event.
- Otherwise, gargoyles aren't really anything you haven't faced before. I don't think one really needs to prepare much for this event since you've got some backup who the gargoyles will target first. I'd focus on preparing to face lots of gargoyles and ghouls in the next place.

Lost Chapel, above ground
- Regular and fiendish gargoyles are vulnerable to stinking cloud. Half-fiends are immune to poison.
- Freedom of Movement and good Fortitude saves will ward of the paralysing attacks of ghouls, but it may be worthwhile to memorise or keep a few Remove Paralysis scrolls.
- Remove Sickness and Remove Disease will be useful too because ghouls carry ghoul fever. Cast Remove Sickness and Bear's Endurance on your front-liners who have the lowest fortitude saves.
- Protection from Evil and Restoration for Succubus. Too few instances of energy drain to justify casting Death Ward on everyone though.
- Nulkineth. He can cast Mass Hold Person (countered by Freedom of Movement) and has energy drain gaze (countered by Death Ward). This is kind of a problem to fully stop because both Freedom of Movement and Death Ward are level 4 spells, and Camellia cannot memorise either (damn her). So a couple of Remove Paralysis and Restoration is warranted.

Lost Chapel, below the cliffs
- Protection from Evil. Incubus and Succubus a plenty.
- Stinking Cloud + Delay Poison for gargoyles.
- Stringy Demodand. Level 20, AC 33 vs melee and 26 Spell Resistance, wow. It also sports +24 to attack and hits for 2d6+21 damage and 1d10+21 damage twice. It has some spells like Fear and Hold Monster but seems to prefer to go for melee. Thankfully, Camellia can Evil Eye its AC by 4. Buffs and flanking bonuses will handle the rest.
Maybe it's best to take it on *after* you've beaten Nulkineth for the 2nd Mythic rank and fully rested.

Lost Chapel, below ground
Appears if you keep the Wand of Zacharius
- Stone Golems are immune to all sorts of things, except prone. So Grease away.
- Whether or not you fight old Zach or let him leave in peace is up to you. He's blurred, but that's nothing a Faerie Fire can't fix. He's got a whole lot of buffs but you're not going to succeed in Dispelling them at this stage of the game. He is not immune to grease.
- Spectres require Death Ward. If you defeated Zach, you can use his dropped item and just send in the warded character.

Ruins of Ashberry Hamlet
Appears after completing Lost Chapel, just west of Shallow Grave
Sporting 32 AC and a large variety of spells, the Ancient Sarkorian Cleric is not a joke. Buff like a champion for this fight so that you can beat that AC.
- Death Ward for energy drain of all the ghosts
- Freedom of Movement for the many hold/paralysis spells.
- Buff up all three saving throws for the wide variety of spells the ghost is going to cast. It usually opens with Rift of Ruin for me, so Relfex saves is the most important IMO.
- Protection from Lightning can help with Stormbolts if it decides to cast it.
- Sources of ghost touch (Finean and Camellia) for incorporeal. Holy, Divine (Searing Light) and Force (Magic Missle, Battering Blast) damage is efficient too.

Drezen, city
- Lots of demons, of course. But you have Covenant of the Inheritor so good-aligned and cold iron weapons aren't an issue.
- Brimoracks a plenty. Resist/Protection from Fire is a must.
- Plenty of Vrock. Save the Wands of Bless to dispell their spores.
- A few Nabasu with mass hold person and negative energy gaze. Death ward and Freedom of Movement your front-liners. Don't forget to use the Dried Hand of Martr for an extra charge of Death Ward. Stock scrolls of Restoration.
- Shadow Vollary thingies have conealment. Faerie Fire will do the trick.
- Darrazand. He's got high AC and hits like a truck. You've got a whole lot of support, so don't be afraid to use them as meat shields. Sorry Irabeth, Galfrey, but I know for a fact you're both immortal for this fight and I'mm gonna abuse it.

Drezen, Citadel
- Blightmaw, if you choose to let the conjurers summon him, is basically another Big Boss with high AC and hits hard. Dispel magic could remove the charges of mirror image if you're lucky.
- Brimoracks a plenty. Resist Fire. The troops following you around are probably toast.
- More Nabasu! Seeing a trend?
- Ghouls too! Freedom of movement.
- Eustoyriax and his band of shadow demons are incorporeal. Ghost Touch and Finean will take care of that. Cold Resistance and Death Ward help reduce their damage.

Staunton, Minagho, Nurah
- Surprisingly, Minagho has much higher defences than Staunton himself (36AC vs 27). Then again she is a 28 HD boss whereas Staunton himself is just 16HD. Their Spell resistance is 31 and 28 on Core too.
- To dispel Staunton's many buffs, you need to pass a 27 check (yikes). Hurt Staunton or Minagho enough and she'll take some of the buffs away before leaving.
- If Nurah is in the fight, for glitterdust/faerie fire her last position, or precast See Invisibility on your whole party.

Act 3 Part 1 Pre-Ivory Sanctum

Take your time to browse through the wares available in Drezen. Just make sure you keep some money back to pay Greybor for his services.
Recommended purchase:
-Goggles of Pure Sight. Taking a 20 on rolls to dispel is a godsend. Furthermore, there's a trick to abuse the goggles. The buff to Dispel Checks lasts forever until the character makes a Dispel Check, even through resting, so pass the goggles between your dispellers every rest so that all of them have the buff. You're going to be facing mini-bosses who have a dozen buffs. You're opening move should be to dispel those buffs with Greater Dispel. Some bosses are just *too* high level to dispel even when rolling 20s depending on your caster level when you challenge them, so keep that in mind.
- Scroll scriber's kit 9 and Alchemist kit 6 is available at Murky Grotto.
Recommended relic: The Bane of Spirit ring relic made from from the Phylactery of Stevanius converts all your damage into force. This works wonders against swarms in particular.

You may want to pick up Woljif ASAP since they open up more options in council meetings, so don't start councils until you have them if you want the options they suggest. To do so, first travel south past the Lost Chapel to trigger an encounter with cultists. Then continue travelling towards the Dragon Hunt to trigger the second encounter with Woljif.

Completing Greybor's Dragon Hunt quest also opens up some of the best council meeting options, but is much harder to pick up because you'd have to take out Devarra the red dragon. Most folks will delay the Dragon Hunt quest because Devarra is really tough.

Shrine of Sacriledge
- 3 HD undead wolves? 7HD Babau? Even the 12HD Glabrezu aren't too threatening.
- Gormandizer however is a 21HD with 31 AC on core. His saves are pretty impressive at F/R/W of +15/+18+15 on Core and 28 Spell resistance. Look, just beat him to death. He's asking for a beatdown with that paltry AC.

Ashen Grotto
- Ashen giants, their lowest save is reflex at an impressive +8 on Core. +9 for Thraz himself. The giants carry diseases, but generally they don't normally get the chance to spread it for me.
- Tick swarms are so tiny that only AoE attacks work. Or natural attacks + Ulbrig's anti-swarm amulet. Prepare accordingly.

Murky Grotto
The chaplian has a lot of important materials such as Dinosaur Bone and recipes. Be sure to pick up the Demon Slayer Soup, it'll come in handy for Playful Darkness much later.
The islands do get harder and harder, so go back out to Golarion once the difficulty starts to get too unmanagable. There are 13 islands available for Act 3.
- Island 11. Eye collector has 62 AC, F/R/W 25/29/26, 25 resistance on Core. Pretty challenging until you dispel her (need to pass 26 check), which brings her down to 44 AC. Mark of Justice + buffs will do the rest.
- Island 12 Fallen Time Guardian has 49 AC, FRW 25/27/30, 27 SR on Core. Could dispel to remove some of that I suppose but I didn't bother.
- Last island, Star Rattle has only 35 AC but a lot of HP and a host of ways to reduce the damage you do to him. He'll still die like a fly. Eye Collector was more challenging.
What's with the aesthetic on this island anyway?

Greengates
- Demons, meh. Nothing too special.
- Jaruunicka has 25 AC, F/R/W +16/+11/+13 on Core. Just shoot her down with Arue. Dispel needs to beat 26. Same tactics will work, basically.

Scrubland by a bend in the River
- Being a boss of a companion quest rather than an optional boss, Voetiel isn't *nearly* as difficult. Only +23 or so to hit, and +9 to reflex saves. Just cast Grease under him. He is immune to death effects and the like since he's scripted to survive and run.

Wintersun
- Again, *ferocious* smilodons are very offensively stacked but have paltry AC. Ambush them and take them out quickly. Same can be said for most of the encounters here, really. I didn't bother to buff up as we're still within the area of the Sword of Valor's fast healing effect.
- Prepare a fire spell to deal with the Ancient Treant's regeneration once it's down. Or an alchemical bomb, any fire damage works.
- Morveg. Oh hey, he hits hard. But his defences are poor. Meh, burn him down before he kills you. You could dispel him to make the fight easier.
- Marhevok. Again, strong offense (his throwing axes hurt), poor defences. Summon some meat shields before the battle starts to keep him busy then burn him down. Do cast Protection from Cold for his pet dragon, and True Seeing on your party to bypass his Mirror Image (he'll recast it if you dispel it).
- I'd leave the whip alone. Otherwise, cast Death Ward on the whole party.

Artisan's Tower
It's a long way from Grimwood, so be sure to rest and go for the +skills food buff! There will be a whole slew of skill checks nearing Artisan's Tower and the Tower itself. What checks you get depend on the path you take;
- Left is Mobility or World, then Athletics or Mobility, then Athletics.
- Right is Nature or Perception, then Athletics or Mobility, then Athletics or Nature.
- Please buff before heading in. Passing a series of big stealth checks will help.
- Rush in after the scripted event to kill him before he burns stuff.
But wait, you're not done! Below in the ruins are three variations of Mandragora! Each have almost as astounding AC, but no spell resistance. Will is their weakest save, but they're immune to most mind affects. Slow is ideal. They're also have DR 15 to damage that isn't good and slashing.
The last one will simply explode in your face, which if you survive counts as a kill and grants the corresponding Exp.

Currantglen again
So much great stuff to buy!
- Quicken/Maximize/Empower/Greater Quicken Metamagic Rods
- Scorching Bracers (+2 DC Evocation spells)
- Skeleton mage + ghoul pack means freedom of movement. The mage casts sirocco among other things, so fire resist may help.
- Marauders. Nothing special here. Use diplomacy to get into position before aggro-ing them.
Gundrun
- Bhoga Swarms. Being diminutive, only AoE and natural attacks with Ulbrig's Swarmbane Casp work. Worse, Bhoga Swarms have 23 Spell Resistance, F/T/W saves of +11/+21/+13, and Resist 10 Acid/Cold/Fire/Electricity. AoE sonic Fortitude spells like Shout , the Corrupter +Stinking Cloud combo or Banishment are ideal for spells. Be sure to memorise Delay Poison Communal.
Arysen sells Scorching Bracers, which are valuable for Evocation casters.
Forest of Forgotten Spirits
- Nabasu. Freedom of Movement and Death Ward.
- The swamp is filled with something called ghastly stench. Delay Poison Communal.
- 4 very sick scouts need Remove Disease spell, spell check 22 to remove. It's so hard to remove that the wand is quite useless.
- Fiendish Purple Worm isn't actually all that impressive, oddly. 35 AC, pretty low will save. Not many immunities.
- Rugdur has a huge amount of buffs. 28 to dispel. Goggles of Pure Sight work really well here. He's incorporeal as well as Legendary Proportions, that's the real kicker. His reflex is his worst save, so maybe Icy Prison will work. Grabbing him with Ulbrig seems to work really well.

Ravaged Long House
- Bodaks have negative level inducing gaze, so death ward the whole team. That's it really.

Pulura's temple
- Lots of undead wights, skeletons and incorporeal ghosts. Death Ward is a must. Have Ghost touch weapons ready.
- The Elder Earth Elementals have poor reflex saves and aren't immune to mind-affecting spells.
Desolate Hovel
- Nothing too obnoxious. Mariliths are countered by stagger effects like slow.

Act 3 Part 2 Ivory Sanctum to Midnight Fane

More relics: Plague of Madness relic from the Wicked Dope is unlocked pretty late by defeating armies in the crusades of Act 3, but is a big priority for spellcasters. Choose the quarterstaff upgrade, then the 2nd option for empower/maximise the next spell if you cast the same spell 3 times in a row. Cantrips like light *do* count, but there is no visual buff to indicate that it is working until you actually cast a spell. Pass it around, buff up, go to combat, pass it around again, buff up, rinse repeat.

Crimson Dust
- Sinful Sinew has 36 AC, F/R/W +18/17/20 on Core, and two claw attacks at +34. Could be tough I suppose, but fully buffed I didn't really have a problem.

Grimwood (Dragon Hunt)
As much as you may want to delay the dragon hunt, it may be best to do it before Ivory Sanctum.
- On the way to Grimwood, Devarra the dragon will ambush your party repeatedly, breathing fire on your party every time and then flying off once you do enough damage or reaching turn 4, I think. I triggered him at least twice, so be sure to have multiple Protection from Energy (Fire) ready.
- Fear aura. Remove Fear to counter this.
- On Core: 40 AC, 40 Flat-footed, 7 Touch. Yes, he's hard to hit if you're not fully buffed, so just survive the ambushes until you ambush him yourself.
30 spell resistance too, what joy. Saves are F/T/W +22/+13/+23. For now, he is immune to Fire, Poison, Ability Score damage and drain, Sleep, Paralyzed, Prone, Petrified. Casting spells at him seem almost pointless unless you have Metamagic Rods of Piercing, and use touch/reflex save spells.
+35 to +40 to hit, six attacks per round? Wow, would have been nice to stick a slow or stagger effect on him.
- He normally casts Displacement on himself. Good luck sticking Faerie Fire through all that spell resistance. Dispel Magic requires a check of 36, which is out of reach for most even with a natural 20 roll using the Goggles from town.
- Immune to death at this point since he's scripted to flee to Artisan's Tower when wounded.

Ivory Sanctum
- Demons ahoy! Mythic demons at that. Yikes.
- True Seeing is needed for all the mirror images.
- A few Nabasu who will try to cast hold person and hit you with negative levels. Freedom of movement and
- Some Vrock. Hope you still have wands of Bless.
- Incorporeal mini-bosses will warrant bringing ghost touch and Finean. They'll appear when you touch the various latrine looking altar things as well as solve a big puzzle. They'll use Dazzling Display, so be sure to have fear immunity (Remove Fear).
- Don't head "Outside" until you find the rest point to clear corruption, in the southern area after the eggs with the golems. This place is huge, you should rest.
- Two Swarm encounters, one of which is the boss himself. Save your AoE spells for the swarms. Especially the boss himself.
The locust swarms have DR10/good, AC 22, F/R/W 18/17/7, spell resistance 17, and 15 Fire and Cold resistance on Core.

Ambush soon after Ivory Sanctuary
Side with Kaylessa. Cast Protection from Arrows and True Seeing. Really, as long as you pre-buff expecting trouble these chumps shouldn't be a problem.

Hellknight Outpost
- Incorporeal enemies, so prepare Ghost Touch weapons if possible.
- Lots of energy drain so precast Death Ward on everyone.

Sacred Lands
- The lilitu is no match for your whole party... but possibly too much to handle on your own. Drink an invisibility potion and run towards the exit that has opened up nearby to where the rest of your team is.

Extirpator's Camp
- Gluttonous Maw has high AC (41 on Core) and DR15/ Adamantine but only +10 Will save. Hold monster/constricting coils will take it out immediately.

Blackwater
Save Blackwater for later, possibly after Ivory Sanctum or even next act! It's a big challenge area which you cannot back out of easily.
- A source of lightning damage and adamantine weapons is essential for removing regen. Zap cantrip can do the trick.
- Lots of incoming lightning damage, ironically. Resist or Protection.
- They will be lightning weapons and a Wand of Call Lightning. This wand is the reason why you've been spending points in Use Magic Device, haha.
- Unfortunately some demons are immune to lightning. Adamantine weapons still work. Coup de grace works, eventually. Death spells like Phantasmal Force work too, oddly, but the big demons saves are too high.
- Touch attacks or incuding Flat-footed (via Greater Invisiblity) will help bypass those stupendous AC values (around 47).

Wintersun revisited
- Siabre has 42 AC and FRW 23/16/31 on Core, acid and fire immunity and a HUGE number of buffs including Freedom of Movement, True Seeing and Seamantle. DC 31 to Dispel. Goggles of Pure Sight are key, as usual. As an undead druid with 20 caster levels he boasts a heck of a lot of spells.

Midnight Fane
- Gallu has some locust swarms. Save some AoE for them.
- Gresilla has some nice loot if you choose to fight her, but casts Overwhelming Presence and Hold Person. Shield of Law will nullify Overwhelming Prescence, Freedom of Movement vs Hold.
- The easternmost section of the abyss is home to ghouls (use Freedom of Movement), Bodaks and Nabasu (use Death Ward), and eventually the infamous Playful Darkness himself.

PLAYFUL DARKNESS
- Playful Darkness, on Core, has 67 AC, 59 Flatfooted AC, 32 Touch AC, FRW 39/34/32, Spell resistance 36. 31 DC to dispel its plentiful buffs. As a death snatcher, its regen is removed by positive energy, funnily enough. It is damaged by positive energy too, so Heal/Cure Wounds is a good option to both damage it and stop its regen. Use Reach/Greater Reach rods.
- Death Ward will prevent his level drain from attacks, but with its incredible offence (+53 to hit, about 50 damage, 7 attacks) you don't your party members in his striking range in the first place. Use summons and Enlarge/Legendary Proportions for reach.
- Not immune to Shaken and Sickness. So Sickness from Big Game Gloves (Arue) and Shaken from Frightful Aspect (Sosiel/Daeran) will work, no save. Every bit of AC reduction helps.
- If you manage to dispel his True Seeing, Echolation and See Invisibility, then Greater Invisibility will make it flat-footed. Every bit helps.
- Three rounds of dispelling + debuffs reduced his AC to 46 for me, but it still had Greater Invisibility and Displacement on top of all that. True Seeing will only help if you manage to dispel Mind Blank.
- The Devs have given him a Swarmbane Clasp to help him kill your summoned swarms, but Creeping Doom is still a top pick to counter his ridiculous AC.

Alternatively, you could come back to Playful Darkness in future acts.

-Darrazand, meh. Sure, he has 50+ AC on Core. But the dispel check is only 23. He does cast Dominate, so do load up on Protection from Evil or Holy Aura. He explodes on death (half unholy) so THP for your wimpy casters could be a good idea.
- The secret hidden area has 4 Enraged Vescavor Swarms as soon as you touch the altar. These things were more annoying to me than Playful Darkness, personally, since they are swarms which needs AoE spells and you fight in tight quarters. They have 50 AC and are DIMUNITIVE swarms, so they totally ignore physical damage from weapons, though holy/force damage attached to weapons still works. They also have about 30 spell resistance, acid immunity and 30 fire/lightning resist, so use cold damage and Cast protection from Cold on your own people. Unbreakable Heart, or better yet Shield of Law prevents them from confusing your team.

Act 4 Alushinyarra

I hate this place. Stupid game devs showing off how horrible it is to struggle with navigating the 3D engine decided to make it even more annoying. Muuuuuuurgh.

Anyway, point being: Dimension Door is the spell you want to prep. Like, a lot of slots. Gather everyone in the party VERY close to your mage, the cast dimension door to get to extra loot and powerful optional boss fights.

Be sure to pass all the religion checks on the walls.

Also, I'm playing an Angel with combined spellbook at this point, so I'm blowing everything up with Empowered Maximised Storm of Justice (thanks to Wicked Dope project's Plague of Madness staff). What I'm trying to say is I'm having too easy a time so the quality of my guide may have dropped.

Lower City
- Various random drunks with murderous intentions. Nothing fancy.
- Soul Hunter. Found on one of the slightly east central rooftop, it has AC 59/43/30, FRW 29/34/35, Spell resistance 37 on Core. Dispel DR 27, and Armour of Bones and Freedom of Movement cannot be dispelled for whatever reason so he still had AC 50 after being fully dispelled. You can dispel it before combat starts. Like all death snatchers, its regen is removed with positive energy.
It tends casts Circle of Death as it's first move and has Finger of Death and has level drain attacks, so load up on Death Ward. It does NOT have See Invisibility or anything of that sort, so load up the team on Greater Invisibility to access that flat-footed AC 43. Unfortunately, Greater Invis is competing for the same spell slots as Dimension Door, so save it for your martial attackers maybe.

Middle city
- As you get more famous, more hostiles will appear around the city to challenge you. If you see packs of demons which are not "citizens" or "beggars", it may be hostile as you get closer.
- "Pathetic" Quasit. Do NOT mess with this guy unless fully prepared. AC 52/41/30, FRW 25/30/31, spell resistance 33.
He has 3 phases, all of which are well buffed including mirror images and mind blank (which defeats true seeing). His buffs refresh every phase and it is a level 20 caster, unfortunately, which means it needs a 31 dispel check every phase. It also loses all debuffs every phase, including Mark of Justice. On the last phase he buffs *even more*, including Dragonkind 3. He has nabasu and succubus with bows supporting him in waves, so some Death Wards and Protection from Evil could help. Freedom of Movement will help your martial characters bypass his Seamantle in the last phase. Protection from Electricity will help against his electricity breath in dragon form.

Upper city
- Vampires will try to dominate party members, btw. So prepare Protection from Evil.
- No more optional bosses like Soul Hunter and Quasit here.

The Art of making friends
Eventually, you'll be on this quest to investigate the Nahyndrian Crystals for Shamira. Once you reach the mines, you'll be faced with the infamous Ancient Carnivorous Crystals. These guys have a subsonic harm which stuns, Fort save vs DC33 on Core. High Fortitude save *can* help, but the save is so high that anyone without naturally high saves is bound to fail. The Ice Body personal spell will allow those who can cast it to ignore the stun effect.

Hidden Abode
After plugging in the Thanatos Rune into the hidden slots and fighting off mobs repeatedly, you'll get this final fight in the Hidden Abode. Plenty of enemies here including ranged enemies who are up on the balcony, and stringy demondands which teleport in from behind. You need some way of attacking and killing the enemies on the higher elevation, and enough melee warriors to protect your squishy party members both from the front and the back. There are multiple waves. Apparently there are alchemists and kineticists in this battle (which will use ranged touch attacks I presume) but I killed everything before I noticed their presence. *cough* Storm of Justice *cough*
True Seeing will help see the enemies who have greater invisibility and mirror image. The leader has obnoxious saving throws, but all his backup doesn't so various disable spells can be effective. (egs. a heightened Stinking Cloud with Corrupter)
If you are willing to be cheesy (I am), you can dispel the leader's pack from afar with Radiance before the battle starts. Even debuffed, the leader has 47AC on Core.

[mrbunnyban]

This is a work in progress I'm publishing early to share with my friend. Eh, most of you guys should have finished the game by now anyway.