Arelith

I think it was reported before, but I don't recall where.

As far as I can tell, the recommended level for this particular writ is set to too low. It feels like the recommended level should be set 2 or 4 levels higher.

In normal clear, apparently mages tend to get stuck on this quest. The fortress has hordes of enemies, the enemies summon hordes of undead, so by the time a small party would reach the queen, there will be no supplies or no magic spells left. It honestly brings back memories of the time when Malar temple was listed as level 14 writ. Main issue is that Corpse-Masters and Warchiefs can easily drain HP of an available summon, additionally apparently Corpse-Masters have infinite cast of Endure Element or something like that.

I've helped a mage character clear it out before with an epic level character. That was very easy, but that character was a melee ranger that had nearly 50 AC and 40+AB.

The trog writ on Skal (Things from Below) feels like it's set too low, too.

Traps, nasty boss, phylactery, all the big ones, and I was penalised 40% at level 10.

That's alot of stink

MRFTW wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:53 pm The trog writ on Skal (Things from Below) feels like it's set too low, too.

Traps, nasty boss, phylactery, all the big ones, and I was penalised 40% at level 10.

that screenshot is not from Skal tho. O.o

Sincra wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:56 pm That's alot of stink

Its an episode in Fear Factory

AstralUniverse wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 6:15 pm

MRFTW wrote: Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:53 pm The trog writ on Skal (Things from Below) feels like it's set too low, too.

Traps, nasty boss, phylactery, all the big ones, and I was penalised 40% at level 10.

that screenshot is not from Skal tho. O.o

That's why I said "set too low, too", as in "also set too low".

Just failed 4th attempt to kill the queen (I'm getting real good at running away from there).


The queen murdered level 18 greater earth elemental easily. (which ripped through the rest of the fortress unhurt)
It has acid sheath.
Hasted mummies.
Can summon at least six mummies, probably more.
Also has that "rain" spell.
Can disable summoning in the whole area.


Definitely doesn't feel like the low to mid level writ it is marked as.

I've finally managed to clean this place with tier 9 elemental (conjurer + abjurer).

It still feels like the low bracket difficulty is kinda set too low. During leveling there's a very weird spot with this writ where the fortress itself is trivial, but the boss is ridiculously hard, meaning there's significant gap. The gap is probably caused by the summons. The boss has higher tier of the undead, and that makes a lot of difference, as they can swarm and wipe many things quickly.

Void wrote: Tue Dec 21, 2021 9:13 am I've finally managed to clean this place with tier 9 elemental (conjurer + abjurer).

It still feels like the low bracket difficulty is kinda set too low. During leveling there's a very weird spot with this writ where the fortress itself is trivial, but the boss is ridiculously hard, meaning there's significant gap. The gap is probably caused by the summons. The boss has higher tier of the undead, and that makes a lot of difference, as they can swarm and wipe many things quickly.

Definitely hit the nail on the head here. Op summons rarely draw complaints when used by a PC, but they will apply to NPCs too, and I still don't feel, in many cases, are appropriate to the caster level.