Game:

The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003)

Duration: 1:43

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READ ME:

I might be some sort of madman. Stop reading here if you don't want large parts of the game spoiled.

Basically, as you come up on the end of the game, one of the bosses will summon Iuz (or, at least, an aspect of him) to put an end to the fight. After a few turns of Iuz wailing on you, St. Cuthbert comes down to whisk them both away. In the four turns that the player has to fight against Iuz it is possible to defeat the god, negating the need for Cuthbert to bail you out.

As one might expect, Iuz is obscenely difficult and was only made more so in the Circle of Eight modpack. He has nearly 800 hit points, hits like a truck and has something like 7ish (really hard to tell, honestly) attacks a round.

Here's how I killed him without cheating (No, I don't consider Max HP cheating).

First, the player needs a CHAOTIC GOOD character wielding either Fragarach or Scather, which is acquired by either killing Prince Thrommel in the temple (Fragarach) or helping to escort him out (Scather). A workaround that involves killing/letting Thrommel die, taking Fragarach, resurrecting him and then escorting him from the temple allows the player to receive both.

When wielded by non-evil characters, neither sword will ever miss. For Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Good and Chaotic Good wielders, the weapon's damage bonus of +4 against evil creatures increases to +8. Additionally, for Chaotic Good wielders only, the weapons grants them an unlimited number of Attacks of Opportunity against enemies that attack them (effectively a retaliatory strike).

The weapon in this video is Scather, wielded by Lance Paulson (CLR 10/FGT 1).

Before (and during) the fight, Paulson was buffed with the following spells:
Bless
Prayer
Divine Power
Righteous Might
Enlarge Person
Greater Invisibility
Stoneskin
Barkskin
Fog Cloud
Haste
Power Attack: 11

All of these buffs allowed Paulson to achieve a strength of 26, AC of 30 and gave enemies a 70% chance to miss between Greater Invisibility and Fog Cloud (fairly certain these stack do not quote me)

Assuming that the character has three attacks a turn (with no movement used) and an additional attack from haste, that means they will get 16 attacks against Iuz before Cuthbert appears.

The issue with that is Iuz is evil, not stupid. If he can, he will run around and attempt to target the other, much more easily killable members, of your party. The only way for the player to get 16 attacks is if, essentially Iuz runs up to them and engages them.

That's where the bears come in.

If the player effectively blocks off all the ways for Iuz to reach the other party members, then he will parlay with your insanely buffed warrior. As far as I can tell, he will never attack the bears, making them living roadblocks.

Now, as simple math dictates, 16 attacks that deal about 40 damage each on average (Iuz cannot be critically struck) isn't enough to kill him (640 damage). That's why you literally, and I am not kidding, need Iuz to hit you. When he hits you, you will get another attack against him as per the previously mentioned unlimited Attacks of Opportunity. You need to make up that other 150ish damage in those extra attacks. I needed him to hit me twice (and ONLY twice) in this video, which is exactly what happened.

If you take anything from this video, have an actual healer next to the warrior engaged with Iuz. Luckily, my paladin had some potions on him to heal Paulson with.

The reason why this video doesn't show the whole fight is because it really is essentially everything that was shown. Get the warrior to the front, block everyone else with bears/summons, and pray that Iuz only hits you once or twice in a given turn. Any more than that and he will literally just kill you (he procs additional Attacks of Opportunity off his successful strikes) in one turn. Just rinse and repeat those steps. Your warrior will literally be the only person capable of dealing damage to him. His magic resistance is through the roof and most any other weapon does 0 damage to him.

I would recommend doing this fight in segments. You are going to die doing this. His critical strikes deal insane amounts of damage. After you have a good turn, save the game and go through the next turn. Heal the warrior as best you can and make sure the other spells (specifically Haste) are maintained.

Obviously this is much easier if you have both Fragarach and Scather, as you'll have what is effectively double the damage output, but this was how I did it.

...And, yes, let this serve as a teaser for a video I hope to have up in the next week or so (hopefully).

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