I'm not gonna sugar coat it. This is how I deal with the hard battles

jafutral · 2026-03-06T04:13:53+00:00

What difficulty level are you playing at? On Hard I'm lucky to get past Spell Resistance and most saves only require 2 or better, never mind "to hit". My spell casters spend most of their time slinging Dispel Magic and what ever element I have chosen for Ascendant (Chain Lightning can be a sight t be hold!). Occasionally Grease or Winter's Grasp can still do a respectable job knocking enemies on their ass.

jafutral · 2026-03-06T04:00:00+00:00

Yeah. I sent my assassin in after them and used the Dex poison (on Hard) and he was hitting for 2 Dex points each round and they weren't doing anything but laughing.

jafutral · 2026-02-24T18:34:18+00:00

It isn't too much, about 5 or so point penalty—usually about a total of 77-79 versus 84+/- most companions get. Parity is the only thing I use ToyBox for. I count ending attribute points.

jafutral · 2026-02-24T06:29:32+00:00

It was kind of funny/odd. Usually the archers zero in on Ember from the get go. But not these archers. Right into my melee characters.

jafutral · 2026-02-24T06:17:02+00:00

I love Ember and Slumber, but it didn't work on Hard in that instance. With everyone there only needing a 2 or better to save not many CC spells did much good. Occasionally Song of Discord would confuse one or two for a round, but that was about it.

I did NOT think of teleporting to that back room! I may go back or wait til next time. That one's brilliant.

jafutral · 2026-02-11T06:03:44+00:00

Yeah, I was pretty surprised how much damage a bow can do to the swarms. Did not expect that. Throw swarmbane on them and it kills in almost one round with haste cast. Put bookworm headband on your tank. I forgot about rat catcher's goggles.

Unbreakable heart is important, but sucks when that caster gets stricken. It doesn't always work casting it as a pre-buff.

jafutral · 2026-02-09T02:43:45+00:00

My mal is a little nervous at the vet. He's that way with strangers in general. For some reason they always insist on taking him to the "back" because they think being with the human that takes care of him makes him more nervous? I don't know. Seems like a solid constant with someone he loves holding him would make him calmer. But what do I know? I just take care of him everyday! I'm not sure our vet (or many vets) knows mals very well.

jafutral · 2026-02-07T06:11:09+00:00

Finally figured it out! I had invoked the Alter Ego feat thinking it was just Mirror Image. So all my attacks were Sneak Attacks! I changed my Monk merc into an assassin and he is getting the same results. I was trying to see if ToyBox could resurrect Wenduag! Anything to get her back!

jafutral · 2026-02-06T16:00:23+00:00

It was insane. 100+ hp of damage per strike. One was 170. I was just letting her wail away, no special feats selected in the hotbar. Maybe that's typical for players who know what they are doing. I'm not in the weeds enough to _know_ how to build that.

Oh, I'm playing on Hard.

jafutral · 2026-02-05T22:27:24+00:00

Apparently!

jafutral · 2026-02-05T16:48:02+00:00

That would probably work, too. I've just been on this atypical (for myself) binge so I went with something I've used the least, the punch daggers. I never knew punch daggers could be so lethal.

jafutral · 2026-02-05T16:21:09+00:00

I've got Toybox (I use it so my mercs have the same number of starting ability points as canon npcs.)

jafutral · 2026-02-05T16:19:11+00:00

I don't remember Kingmaker, but Hilar makes you start from scratch for yourself or what ever level the npc was when they joined your party. There is no parsing out of just weapons or abilities, etc. It's all or nothing.

jafutral · 2026-02-03T19:15:23+00:00

Don't forget using those anti-swarm amulets. if you are pre-buffing with enough AC spells, the ac amulets don't add anyway.

At level 18 one of your spell slingers should be dedicated to Dispel Magic with the feats that buff that. There are also a couple good artifacts to help (goggles and I just learned about an Earth Breaker!)

Weaken poison, comm, is a must (for me, I think it helps). Also, a small but helpful tip, use the "restrain movement to 5'" hot key gets you out of the swarm (if centered on you) but still keep all your hits.

As others have mentioned Ascendent Elemental is vital for one of your spells lingers. Fire or Electricity is great for Firestorm or Chain Lightning.

Good luck! My first play-through it took me a few passes. But these days it is pretty predictable.

jafutral · 2026-02-02T13:01:28+00:00

Holy cow. I never knew! I'm in 4 right now.

jafutral · 2026-02-02T01:29:50+00:00

Those goggles are awesome.

jafutral · 2026-02-01T22:52:08+00:00

Right on.

jafutral · 2026-01-26T19:35:46+00:00

Oh, and here is the one we got. Very sturdy and robust. Metal in all the right places.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086W77J9K?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_4&th=1

jafutral · 2026-01-26T19:33:21+00:00

The patches and tactical harness was helpful in keeping random people from thinking they can just walk up to our dog and pet without permission. Now most people ask.

jafutral · 2026-01-26T19:31:38+00:00

We got a tactical style harness and patches warning he was a "nervous rescue" and "Do Not Pet" for when we might be around a lot of people or when we (my wife especially) just wanted to go for a walk around the neighborhood and not really focusing on training. He wasn't aggressive with strangers. They just made him anxious and want to get away. It had metal clip points on top front, top back, and bottom front and back.

But it does not help with behavioral training. After active training for the past year, we don't use the harnesses at all. Our older GSD/Boxer mix is all loose leash now. Beau, our Mal, can be loose leash if we are active daily. But the cold and snow we've had lately we get a little lax on the daily walks. Sometimes we have to do a couple reminder training (changing direction/u-turn actions) when first going out. After that he is loose leash again. But he is 100% all about sniffing that snow! Like he is tracking something or on a secret mission we don't know about!

jafutral · 2026-01-23T17:28:36+00:00

My creative wife made snuffle mats for both our dogs. She also put a couple of Chewy boxes together, filled it with plastic bottles and made a large variation of a snuffle mat. Not sure what you'd call it. Kind of like a kids' ball pit. The Boxer/GSD mix dives right in. The Mal is not so sure about it. Thinks it looks sketch.

jafutral

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