Chain Lightening Frakkus

[usprivateer]

Pardon the rant.

 

Level 10 party. Decent stats. Random encounter world map. Enemy witch 1 shot kills entire party with chain lightening. Encounter is in a ravine with no way to get to her. Reloaded 23 times.

 

Not funny. Not fun. Not realistic.

 

There was a mod or piece of a mod that reduced the power of chain lightening; didn't disable it, just reduced the power. I thought I used it earlier but now can't find it. Have searched, no luck. Anybody know of this. IIRC, it was an option in a larger mod to reduce the power or scale it back or sumpin.

 

Seriously, many hours playing, have died quite a few times. Lost poor Alastair and others. Never been 1 shot killed, never had entire party killed in 1 shot. Have had entire party killed, but not in 1 shot. To me, this equals game imbalance. Took 23 reloads to get out of it, and even then it was random luck.

 

Any helpies?

[brokenergy]

Did you improve on Alistair's Templar branch? It will help you heaps with battles that have mages or spirits involved. Who else did you take? What class are you? I need more information before I can really answer

[Thandal]

I think I know that ravine well. It's the one with the...

Team sent to eliminate a particular redhead.

Brokenergy's response is correct. Who's in your Party and what talents/skills vs. mages do they have? My favorite way to deal with that battle is to concentrate on the Leader, who is pretty much alone, high on the left side, while staying out of sight of the Witch.

 

But you'll need lots of ranged attacks to get to him. A mage with Blizzard/Inferno/Tempest is almost a necessity. (Keeps any other enemies on that side of the bridge away from my Party as well.) Then Scattershot, AoS, etc. to really take him down in a hurry.

 

[Minor Spoiler]

You don't have to kill all the enemies in this fight. Just get the Leader down enough and he'll surrender.

[/Minor Spoiler]

 

Kind of like...

Zathrian

in the...

"Nature of the Beast"

finale.

 

Hope that helps!

[Thandal]

There was a mod or piece of a mod that reduced the power of chain lightening; didn't disable it, just reduced the power. I thought I used it earlier but now can't find it. Have searched, no luck. Anybody know of this. IIRC, it was an option in a larger mod to reduce the power or scale it back or sumpin.

If you're just looking to make this particular fight easier, why not set the Difficulty to "Easy" for the duration, then switch it back? Much cleaner than a special mod.

 

Personally, I've found that whenever I felt that "the game was being unfair/unbalanced/impossible" (which has happened more than a few times) it was my tactics that were flawed. The exact same fight became a piece of cake (and I mean walked right through it, repeatedly, over multiple playthroughs!) after I adjusted how I was approaching things.

[danscott84]

If Thandal has the right encounter, then it's not just the mage that is hitting you. It may seem like it, but everyone and everything is coming at you at one time. Tactics is crucial here, and who is in your party will affect the outcome. First time I played it, got taken out right away as well. Changed my tactics and now it's a cakewalk. Actually has gotten to the point I get annoyed with it because it just takes up time and seems to occur when I am in a hurry to get somewhere. (minor spoiler: mainly because I keep forgetting I triggered the needed conversation for this encounter)

[usprivateer]

@brokenergy

@Thandal

@danscott84

 

Thanks for the replies. Where to start? First, the encounter is now behind me, and I'm quite a ways further along. However I want to reiterate that I only got through it on a random chance.

 

Not sure if answering the questions is relative anymore; but this compy types as fast as I speak, so WTH.

 

Party is approximately level 10. Consists of me, a dexterity cunning dual rogue. Leliana specialized as an archer. Dog. Alastair as the tank. Sten.

 

Game settings are at normal. The section in question is indeed the one referred to in your posts. In 23 reloads I never managed to get more than half way down the path to the bridge.

 

I try to play "fair", or as "reality" based as possible. That means no pulling that wouldn't be at least mostly believable in real life, and no meta gaming or hacks. I simply try to play as close to what would be real life as possible. Stuff like no stealing from chests and such when the person is right there and so on.

 

In the situation, I cannot take out the leader. I tried multiple times. He will eventually move out of range and the thugs and witch finish everyone off. Focusing on him also wouldn't square with my playing style as I wouldn't do that in real life as I wouldn't know to do it. The typical situation is only about 10 to 30 seconds go by before the witch fires off the chain and everybody dies. Focused fire on her didn't work. She moves out of range and then zips in and fires. Dead. Trying to get around the bridge equals dead at or just before the bridge.

 

I guess the bottom line here is that I try to play the game as I think real life would play out. Just my style. In this case, the party would focus on who is perceived to be the greatest threat. In this case, the witch when viewed would be priority one. The goons coming along the path would be priority two. Leader on the bluff is last. However, I can't reach her in time and the entire party dies.

 

My complaint is that the power of the spell is unbalanced. There's a reason why everybody loves that spell. It's a one shot kill. I don't mind that spell being terribly powerful, to the tune of half the party's health or something like that. I've had fights where the entire party got killed, just not in 1 shot. Those were the greatest fights. But one shot, no thanks. Like coming to a water ballon fight with a shotgun.

 

In a previous run through I had the same problem in the forest ruins. Some ghost in the end of the ruin killed the entire party. Party was much higher level, but I'd still not had that happen in that game either. At that time I found a mod that scaled the power of chain lightening.

 

There was or is a mod out there that scales or cuts the power of the chain lightening spell for party and enemy casters. I don't remember what it was. I've looked, but can't find it. Cutting the power of the spell fits my play style, as it seems more in line with balance. I just don't think that there should be any one shot kills in the game, particularly when I'm trapped and not willing to meta game my way through.

 

Well, anyone still here?

 

Anyone know what that mod was?

 

:biggrin:

[SkullKnight]

Looking at the spell mechanics listed by the wiki http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Chain_Lightning, chain lightning doesnt seem to be overpowered or capable of 1-hit kills (although the possible stamina drain from it is truly scary D:). I would assume (not being a mage myself) that when the spell forks, it only spawns as many lesser bolts as there are nearby enemies. But even if the maximum number of bolts are spawned, the total damage adds up to only 166.68 spread out over the whole party (20+10*10+4*6.67+4*5). Unless the wiki is incorrect, I would think that something else is contributing to your quick demise.

 

However, to increase overall survivability, I would recommend looking at your party's elemental resistances and perhaps consider adding some more constitution to your characters (if low on hp). I have a lot of hp (424 to be exact) on my character, but thats probably because I play as the party's main tank. Another thing I noticed is that you dont have a mage in your party (4 melee and 1 archer isnt optimal). Revising your party setup and adding a mage should increase survivability substantially (some people even recommend having 2 mages). Taking a quick look at your party members' tactics and revising them as needed may be helpful as well. In tough fights, I generally switch the AI tactics to automatically use health poultices and lyrium potions to keep my party members going.

 

Of course, this is just my take on the subject, but hopefully it helps :)

[usprivateer]

Looking at the spell mechanics listed by the wiki http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Chain_Lightning, chain lightning doesnt seem to be overpowered or capable of 1-hit kills (although the possible stamina drain from it is truly scary D:). I would assume (not being a mage myself) that when the spell forks, it only spawns as many lesser bolts as there are nearby enemies. But even if the maximum number of bolts are spawned, the total damage adds up to only 166.68 spread out over the whole party (20+10*10+4*6.67+4*5). Unless the wiki is incorrect, I would think that something else is contributing to your quick demise.

 

However, to increase overall survivability, I would recommend looking at your party's elemental resistances and perhaps consider adding some more constitution to your characters (if low on hp). I have a lot of hp (424 to be exact) on my character, but thats probably because I play as the party's main tank. Another thing I noticed is that you dont have a mage in your party (4 melee and 1 archer isnt optimal). Revising your party setup and adding a mage should increase survivability substantially (some people even recommend having 2 mages). Taking a quick look at your party members' tactics and revising them as needed may be helpful as well. In tough fights, I generally switch the AI tactics to automatically use health poultices and lyrium potions to keep my party members going.

 

Of course, this is just my take on the subject, but hopefully it helps :)

 

Yeah, actually, I think I remember reading that about chain lightening as well. Now I'm wondering WTH was actually happening there. Seriously, in my game when that witch would fire off the spell all 5 of my characters would literally hang up slightly in the air and vibrate and twitch with blue lightening effects for up to 5 to 10 seconds. I had to sit there and watch the full health bar gradually drop to 0 and everybody die. Was sad. Made Sandal cry.

 

Having said that, I typically don't run my PC or companions up very high in CON; preferring to use the DEX is a better defense than health argument. I don't know what their individual health points were at that time. PC was around LVL 8 or so, so I'll guess their health scores were around 100 (?). Still, for the shot to kill everybody makes me wonder.

 

*puts on conspiracy hat

 

I wonder if there's a mod or part of a mod in something I'm using that ups the lethality of that spell.

 

About mages in party. I usually do have either Morrigan or Wynn in party. This was a random travel encounter and dumb luck that I didn't have either of them in party.

 

Hmm. It's a mystery. Until I run into another mage that 1 shot kills me, I'll just keep on having fun.

[RustyBlade]

*puts on conspiracy hat

 

I wonder if there's a mod or part of a mod in something I'm using that ups the lethality of that spell.

 

There are at least two that do. Chain Lightning - Upgraded and Improved Chain Lightning both do. Improved only affects the PC while the other doesn't say in the description whether it does or not. Might be worth looking into.

[usprivateer]

*puts on conspiracy hat

 

I wonder if there's a mod or part of a mod in something I'm using that ups the lethality of that spell.

 

There are at least two that do. Chain Lightning - Upgraded and Improved Chain Lightning both do. Improved only affects the PC while the other doesn't say in the description whether it does or not. Might be worth looking into.

 

Nope. None of those are installed. I remember several months ago I noticed something in a mod I was using that related to chain lightening. It was part of a bigger mod. A check box on something that altered the spell. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember or find it.