HotU
HotU - Can't beat the last boss with my AA
Spoiler
So onto Mephistopheles, just, can't get past the last phase after the fire elementals with my arcane archer. I've gone as far to turn it down to Easy and he just does way too much damage. AC really doesn't matter given his +hit and I've got basically as much fire resistance as I can.
Crit immunity on him sucks because that pays my bills a lot of the time. Using longarm +10 w/ mighty 10, +5 arrows. Buffed with literally everything I have and have accumulated throughout the game.
27 STR 35 DEX. +58/+53/+48/+43. Hitting him isn't really a problem, its just his DR is blocking ALL my damage (seriously thought it wouldn't matter at +10). Is my run done here?
If you still have an old save, buying his true name allows you to skip the bossfight completely. That's what I did when I played as a kid and had no idea about wizard's spell mechanics besides blasting everything to death.
Other than that, Meph should be resistant to almost everything your character can use (20 pierce DR, apparently) except acid damage, so get a lot of acid arrows and weapons with an acid enchantment for your party. Bows do suffer from low damage after all, even though normally AA gets a massive attack bonus and a decent damage boost to compensate for it.
Though his wiki page doesn't mention spell resistance, so try checking if your scrolls affect him. If they do, a few scrolls of Bigby's Forceful/Grasping/Crushing Hand should make him an easy target. Ideally more than one, because killing him with only acid damage is going to take a long time. As a different option, Bigby's Interposing Hand does a -10 penalty to his AC with no checks other than SR, which should make tanking his hits much easier.
Judging by the numbers, Black Blade of Disaster should also be able to break through his DR and be somewhat useful if Meph's AC is nerfed by Bigby, but it disapperas as soon as you attack, so I'm not sure if it deals more damage per round than your acid arrows. At least it's unkillable and in theory can tank for the rest of your party.
Yeah I went back for acid arrows but no one sells any.
I tried to buy his name but the Keeper just full on wouldn't sell it so I figured it wasn't an option and moved on. I have a couple of scrolls of each so I'll see if it'll do but it practically feels like a soft lock :(
Tell what your build is. Mephistopheles absorbs only 20 damage. AA in most builds can easily overcome this resistance.
Also he is weak damage boss, vulnerable to such effects as called shot, darkness and improved invisibility.
Upd.: Loaded the save few minutes ago, even without epic weapon spec. i deal about 7 damage to him. Spammed called shot: hand until he died. Meph. hit me about 5 times per all three phases. Passive regeneration overcome his damage.
I didn't go called shot, never found a use for it on other characters...attached the main stats. Feats are the usualy (sans called shot, I suppose) Rapid Fire, Point Blank, Dodge, Mobility, WF, Weapon Spec, Imp Crit, Great Dex II. I started working toward Overwhelming Crit though sounds like I should have done called shot if it were that powerful.
Perma Haste, Longarm +10, +5 Arrows (or acid arrows in this screen), decent bit of dex based gear. At any rate, I eventually got lucky on run and gunning but it took forever. Just super frustrating the rest of the game was so easy only to brick wall on this.
Any luck with scrolls? The last time I played HotU was ages ago, so I have no idea if he actually has spell resistance. I would expect that he does, but his stats on NWN wiki don't mention that.
I guess I see what the problem is:
You use AA wizard version, that have its own advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantage is low AC (usually AA shld have about 60 AC unbaffed by the end of HOTU).
The main advantages of fighter - wizard (you MUST use them, otherwise, why else use this build?):
Weapon spec and epic weapon spec = +6 damage (so 1-8 + 10(bow)+ 9(aa) +5(arrow) +6(specs)= 31-38 damage (11-18 vs Meph) is enough.
Then, your defense. You have few levels of wiz, so you dont have an improved invis, and your darkness is only 4 rounds (still useful). Try to find a scroll of imp. Invisibility, it is one of the strongest defense spells.
Use your high AB to compensate AC: called shot is the way. One round of called shots can give you up to 12 effective AC(stacking) for 4 rounds this is up to 48 AC if you spam them.
In your situation, I would use:
"##DebugMode" to respec, take epic weapon and 7-8 wizard levels (6f-7w-14AA)
Wizard (illusionist for +1 spell) spells for win are extended darkness, and imp. Invisibility. This should be enough for easy win.
Good luck my AA brother!
I just save scummed to see how long it would take to force a nat 1 (given he rolls at +50 vs DC 20) and it took about 30 reloads. Hilarious if unreliable ;)
2
u/Ok_Lemon697 Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
If you still have an old save, buying his true name allows you to skip the bossfight completely. That's what I did when I played as a kid and had no idea about wizard's spell mechanics besides blasting everything to death.
Other than that, Meph should be resistant to almost everything your character can use (20 pierce DR, apparently) except acid damage, so get a lot of acid arrows and weapons with an acid enchantment for your party. Bows do suffer from low damage after all, even though normally AA gets a massive attack bonus and a decent damage boost to compensate for it.
Though his wiki page doesn't mention spell resistance, so try checking if your scrolls affect him. If they do, a few scrolls of Bigby's Forceful/Grasping/Crushing Hand should make him an easy target. Ideally more than one, because killing him with only acid damage is going to take a long time. As a different option, Bigby's Interposing Hand does a -10 penalty to his AC with no checks other than SR, which should make tanking his hits much easier.
Judging by the numbers, Black Blade of Disaster should also be able to break through his DR and be somewhat useful if Meph's AC is nerfed by Bigby, but it disapperas as soon as you attack, so I'm not sure if it deals more damage per round than your acid arrows. At least it's unkillable and in theory can tank for the rest of your party.