Posession Questions

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budswell · #1 Post by **budswell** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:26 pm

Hi,
I'm running my first possessor which has got anywhere. Just looking for some tips. Keep in mind I'm not as good as most posters here. Normally go
- Barrow Downs
- Orc Caves
- Sand Hole
- Mirkwood
- Moria (if I'm lucky)

Usually die in one of the last two (or a side quest). So Think unique dragons and lesser balrogs may be a little out of my league.

Started with a Novice Mindcrafter, and recently moved into a dark elf. Both of them just chug away with the "confuse" ability/spell. Was hoping to get orfax (princess quest), but the bastard didn't drop a corpse. I am aware HP is an issue.

I am still only in the Barrow Downs. Currently maxed (lev 16, so skill 20) Posession and Corpse preservation, and a little bit of prayer (Eru). Have 20 something skill points saved up, from what I ready on the old forums, I hope the lost sword guy gives me some barehand combat right? Have also read that Eol is good, but a little gun shy as he got my last char, plus I'm a long way off being ready for the dragons yet.

Shoob · #2 Post by **Shoob** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:48 pm

speed is good. try getting a lizard king with a wand of manathrust... or even better a cyclops.... though you have to be patient with them as they can take down the friendly eagles sometimes (use the eagles to lower their hp... watch both of their hp each turn, if the eagle is almost dead and the cyclops isnt, run...)

Sir Crashalot · #3 Post by **Sir Crashalot** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:02 pm

If you want to go the barehand combat route then going Loremaster is apparently better than Possessor.

Wastrel · #4 Post by **Wastrel** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:42 pm

You should decide on weaponmastery or barehanded before you start the game. It does influence the loremaster/possessor decision and the best use of skill points. A third option, attacking like the monster, is not viable in the end game (poor damage and hitting ability) but will be ok at the dungeons you mention. To do that, you need to be in a body without a weapon slot and have your melee set to weapon combat before you possess the body. (so in a 3-headed hydra body you would get 3 bite attacks, instead of barehanded martial arts attacks)

Not every body can dig or open doors. The Wand of Thrain is almost mandatory for some bodies. A staff of disarm can take care of the door problem.

IckyThingBane · #5 Post by **IckyThingBane** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:53 pm

I always found the most effective progression to be as follows:

Novice mage
Young white dragon - using confusion bolt
Mature red dragon - takes more damage from your cold breath attack and its fire damage is not resistable by your next target, which is...
Storm Giant - Loadsa hp, targeted teleport, bolt and ball attacks, resists - everything you could ask for in the mid-game

The good thing about this is that, once you get the mage corpse, you can pick up everything else in overland mountain areas with no risk whatsoever. Also note that you don't need to make any decisions about BH v WM yet, since you have an arsenal of creature abilities at your desposal.

I used this order when I was trying to get the Watcher to drop a corpse without wasting any points in Corpse Preservation. I had it down to the point where I could kill him within half an hour of starting the game (just as well, 'cos it took about 20 tries...)

Alternatively, you can just get a mature bronze dragon instead of a red one and go straight for the dragons and then kill Eol (he doesn't resist confusion). He'll last pretty much until the endgame.

edit - just did a quick test for my own curiosity and found you can skip the dragon stage completely and just kill a Storm Giant with your confusion bolt. Hadn't realised that as I usually don't bother finding a novice mage corpse and just kill young dragons with a dagger. The Storm Giant was the second creature I killed after coming out of the thieves quest at level 5 and he dropped a corpse

vstat · #6 Post by **vstat** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:45 am

I'll second the storm giant, I love those. After that I go for a unique body. Never won with a possessor though, I may have to try again.

Wastrel · #7 Post by **Wastrel** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:04 pm

IckyThingBane wrote:I had it down to the point where I could kill him within half an hour of starting the game (just as well, 'cos it took about 20 tries...)

wow... I mean WOW.
I guess I let too much stuff slow me down (early relic quests mainly).

#8 Post by **Yottle** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:30 pm

Wastrel wrote:
IckyThingBane wrote:I had it down to the point where I could kill him within half an hour of starting the game (just as well, 'cos it took about 20 tries...)
wow... I mean WOW.
I guess I let too much stuff slow me down (early relic quests mainly).

Most characters can be leveled up to about 30 in ten minutes or so in the wilderness. The trick is to figure out a reasonable progression of monsters that will get you there and then know where to find them. Edge-scumming makes this relatively safe.

For example, I might start with giant white ants in the grass, then move to a mountain square for hippogryph/wolf, troll/gargoyle, young dragon, and finally adult dragon. There are ways this can be speeded up: many level 1 characters can kill gold dragonflies or even crebain, and with the help of eagle uniques I have killed adult dragons with low level characters.

Wastrel · #9 Post by **Wastrel** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:26 pm

True enough.
Wands of Manathrust and Noxious Cloud and raising Magic Device skill to a mere 25 can easily get the weakest of characters to level 30 in no time in the wilderness. I stop or slow down my leveling as soon as I get a relic quest though. I've had too many characters go 15 or more levels without getting a quest and most of my plans to allocate skill points assume I get all 5 quests. So although level 30 in 30 minutes is easy I seldom do it.

No, what impressed me was getting to the watcher in 30 minutes. Unless you can teleport there, which I didn't think was possible. I know Moria is blocked.

#10 Post by **Yottle** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:39 am

Moria is not blocked. The SWC is, but it is only three levels deep. So you can tp to Moria 40 and find the appropriate stairway.

Wastrel · #11 Post by **Wastrel** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:56 pm

I stand corrected.
I knew something was blocked.

I might have to try getting the Watcher again. That was an amusing experience the last time I used its body... just as soon as I finally win with Bearform combat.

IckyThingBane · #12 Post by **IckyThingBane** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:03 am

Yottle wrote:Moria is not blocked. The SWC is, but it is only three levels deep. So you can tp to Moria 40 and find the appropriate stairway.

Yep, plus for some reason you start on a down stair when you enter the SWC. However, since the Storm Giant has targeted teleport, it wouldn't matter even if Moria was tp blocked. You could just buy a huge pile of magic mapping scrolls with the money you get from dragon-killing and use them to find and teleport to all the down stairs.

In this case, relic quests weren't an issue, since I was going for Anti-magic.

budswell · #13 Post by **budswell** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:50 pm

Thanks for all the tips guys. Tried a cyclops, but the missile spell consumed Mana, and I only have 18. So now in a priest body using serious wounds to grind my way through the Orc Caves. And have summon monster for panics and Good creatures (don't want to upset Eru).

Some more questions:
- Do the "race abilities" spells ever fail? Don't think I ever have seen one fail
- What is the deal with some things taking Mana and some not
- What do the numbers listed in the "race abilities" mean
- And in respons to Wastrels "third option" of attacking like the monster? Does that mean I will deal the damage that it lists in the monster recall? No skills will affect this? What about the to-hit?

Storm giants sounds good, will keep a lookout for them.

overtrix · #14 Post by **overtrix** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:31 pm

What is the deal with some things taking Mana and some not ?

There's a chance that when you use a possessed body's power it will not use any mana this time ... the chance is decided by possession skill, wisdom, mana cost of the power, and monster level of the body ... the chance is often very low or high, which makes it seem like "some do, some don't".

Wastrel · #15 Post by **Wastrel** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:02 pm

budswell wrote:And in respons to Wastrels "third option" of attacking like the monster? Does that mean I will deal the damage that it lists in the monster recall? No skills will affect this? What about the to hit?

There is a discussion of this somewhere on the wiki, but I'm going from memory.
You do indeed deal damage as listed in the monster recall. your 'to hit' roll is also handled as if a normal (ie unleveled) monster of that type was attacking. High level monsters have a better chance of hitting than low level monsters. Any bonuses from equipment have no effect. Ditto from skills.
Because you get no bonuses, you'll never deal as much damage as you could using weapon or barehanded combat. You'll also never hit as often as a normal character.
I learned this all the hard way when I played a possessor who only used hydra bodies. I went from 2-headed all the way up to the learnean hydra, but by the end game I found I couldn't hit very often and the damage was pathetic. Most endgame monsters resisted my breath attacks. I eventually won by flinging potions of detonation.

If you're not worried about actually winning, then there's no reason you can't have fun with this type of attack. you might try a wereworm, they're fast, have a poisonous bite and ok hit points. Equipment slots will make your life ... interesting. And when you get tired of it, just upgrade to something better.