Writ Rewards - Need to find the bad ones!

[Irongron]

I'll take a look at the creature (I have a feeling it may be highly vulnerable to sonic damage)

I made this my Saturday hobby. I went back with a level-appropriate Druid and loaded every spell slot I could with "Crumble"...which does do sonic in vanilla...but does entropy in Arelith. "Crumble" does indeed work (no magic immunity hit on that spell) but even expending all slots I could only get him to injured. If this was one of the intended pathways to deal with them, might need to add the custom vulnerability?

We do like varied challenges, but I haven't found the ticket yet.

Thanks for checking!

UPDATE
Tried making a run at it as a gonne-user. While it does work, they also absorbs the first /50/ points of damage from a successful attack. My best guess is, at that rate, it would require dozens and dozens of successful shots.

I've made some changes to that particular creature. Let me know how it is.

[For My Next Trick]

So if we're talking about bad writs. Cloaker Embassy.

I've sometimes had to run the full loop of the embassy, moving through the portal, to kill cloakers 6-7 times, because no ancient spawns. There needs to be a guaranteed spawn somewhere. Please. This is -agony-.

[RedGiant]

I've made some changes to that particular creature. Let me know how it is.

I made a couple runs at it again this weekend. Though I noticed a few welcome vulnerabilities, I think it is still way too much for a lvl 10-16 writ.

Without using reflexive damage, I got my arse handed to me on a lvl 20 Ftr/DD/WM. I also had to run away on a lvl 16 Druid. His entire summons menagerie was decimated in a couple of rounds and I used every spell that worked only to get the Golem to "injured".

The only class I was able to definitively and regularly "win" with at level range was the usual suspect: warlock, who excels at spamming specific damage types.

I think the main problem is still the nigh-invulnerable combat chassis.

While its damage output seems lower, it nevertheless still sports a 42 AB progression, IKDs on a 38, is hard as hell to hit, has a ton of hp, all while boasting a robust suit of physical, elemental, and magical immunities.

A few of the problems with this are:

Melee Class:
1) [AB + IKD] 38+1d20 is /a lot/ to build and gear against at lvls 10-16, where your base skill is 13-19.
2) [AC] You also cannot hit it with any regularity, while it will hit you most of the time.
3) [Immunities] Even when you do hit, you will do fractional damage.
(I was doing 2-5, trying bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing...along with fire, cold, and negative essences. While I know it has certain vulnerabilities now, 10-16 lvl characters can't use most of the specialty weapons that might be employed, nor usually afford to make a properly essenced, Golem-killer weapon if their's doesn't work.)

Magic Class:
1) [Immunities] Most magic classes have a very limited ability to spam damage by type, yet this seems precisely what the Golem is immune to. (It seems to be immune to spells of a certain level and below.)
2) [HP] Even on a non-warlock magic class that can damage the Golem, druid in this case, I could only damage it for about 40-50 a spell. While this may seem impressive at first glance, even devoting every casting of this spell possible at that level, I could only get one of the two golems that spawned to "injured". It simply had too much HP to make a dent. Moreover, I could not even use meta-magic to get more castings, because said spell is at the limit of level-appropriate ability.

tl;dr: It is still a steam-roller at level. Warlock required.

Edit:
UPDATE: This might actually be fine now. I'm not sure if you changed anything, but I was able to find a few tactics available to other classes which seem to bypass the golem's resistances and at least make the writ doable, even if it is still hard as hell at level.

Spoiler Alert: Grease is one.

[BattleDrake]

tl;dr : The Living Spells - Gemstone Golem (Greater) is almost impervious to magic and melee, make Crystalline Sentinel the end boss.

As one of the only writs I didn't do on my latest effort, I finally bit the bullet and took The Living Spells writ. It still has all of the above mentioned problems.

The end boss is a Gemstone Golem [Greater] of which there are two. There is one Crystalline Sentinel which the writ warns you about, that is fairly easy to knock off. It almost seems like the writ was designed opposite its execution, where the slow-moving impervious Gemstone Golem [Greater] (s) are the guards and the single, weaker Sentinel should be the boss. The writ should thus warn you about the Golems rather than the Sentinel.

This being the case, however, you cannot complete the writ without killing the nigh unto impervious Gemstrone Golem [Greater], which you can neither magic nor melee at appropriate level.

Unless I am missing a trick (I have never tried it with a trapper for example...and maybe next I will try a gonne?), the only way I have been able to complete the writ is with reflexive damage. My recent completion was on a full-melee, above-level DD (lvl 20) who had to use the same trick of death-armor potions, massive amounts of heal kits, sprint away, heal, repeat. 1/2 hour, 92 heal kits, and approximately 10-15 death armor potions later, I was able to complete the writ for 599xp.

Still think this needs looked at.

I'll take a look at the creature (I have a feeling it may be highly vulnerable to sonic damage)

I remember bringing these things up before.... I just had an encounter with them again today because someone tried to fight them and couldn't take them on so they lured them out of the cave and right into me. I'm a level 22 with 60+ ac in IE, 40+ ab before IE, and have been doing just fine in epic content.

Despite this, one of those golems was a straight up nightmare and caused a godsave. It had 40+ ac, had a top ab of 42, spammed knockdown, hit for 30-50 dmg, and even with my riposte attacks using a bludgeoning weapon, I was doing a whopping 7 damage to it. Took like 5-10 mins to bring it down.

The other greater gem golem was a little easier, but when tagging with this thing, made it very very difficult.

For a minion in a writ area for up to level 16? This is absurd.

[A1RMAN]

Hey. I want to share my experience with UD writs. Based on levelling three characters in 12 month time or so.

Quell the Troglodyte Queen Ambitions (6-15, 3000 xp)
Everyone knows it's quite a dangerous writ, especially the boss fight in the end. Many people die there, especially if you're going solo. Could use a slight XP raise and minimum level requirement raised.

The Haunted Falls (6-16, 2000 xp)
This a strange writ. Traditionally challenging and interesting with its puzzles, but if someone went through it before you, all the puzzles are solved, and you just walk through it, fighting some enemies on the way. I hope there is a way to refresh the puzzles and let everyone pass it as intended. Minimum level and XP reward raise would be reasonable here.

The Breedmaster Spire (7-15, 3000 xp)
I like the areas for this writ, but it's quite a long journey, with traps and hundreds of enemies on the way. I found myself skipping this writ, since the time investment is just too much when compared to XP reward.

Breaking the Siege (16-25, 3000 xp)
This is a cool carnage-style writ which I really like in terms of battling through. Orcs come in big numbers, and if you attract 2 or 3 packs of them, oh boy!

But the reward for this long and dangerous writ is extremely disappointing. 3000 xp for such a long writ and in that high of a level range? To make matters worse, the end room doesn't even have a treasure chest of sorts. Just a couple of bookshelves. And, like we know, if you act a certain way, you may need to do the writ from the beginning.

Overall, great areas, terrible reward.

Burning Shores: The Exiled Princess (21-28, 10000xp)
Yes, this writ requires you to pay for the passage, but overall is a relatively quick one. It either requires more objectives added or XP reward lowered.

[msterswrdsmn]

Underdark - Living Spells
Adding my 2 cents. All of the prior issues still exist, with the added issue of this boss having a tendancy of double spawning: i remember this being an issue with my warlock as well.

The greater golems are far stronger than anything else around it by a long shot. I get bosses should be tougher but the power gap here is massive. I ended up beating this boss by popping death armor potions and letting it hit me while madly spamming healing items.

I had to make the choice of either dodging with imp expertise up to avoid damage, or to drop it entirely to deal damage.

The golem hits very hard (20-24 physical with 7-10 cold per non crit hit with a high AB) and its HP/AC are quite high. You have to either choose whether or not you want to do essentially nothing trying to delay and stall the boss out or just sit there trying to trade big numbers.

Comparatively, everything else one on one, including the sentinel died in less than 4 or 5 rounds.

Also for comparison, this boss was a joke for my blaster warlock as it was large, slow, and kept tripping over the terrian while I fired quickened blasts at it.

For context, buffed, my melee mundane had 36-37 AB and about 45ish AC plus imp invis for concealment before toying with expertise. Not super high but probably aroumd whats expected for that level range with mid-range gear.