Brimstone Man

[Setremedes]

I've been bashing my skull against this recently, and I doubt I'm the only one. For those who aren't familiar, Brimstone Man is a challenge game in which the PC must leave the Drakalor Chain with the fire orb, having visited only one location (the ToEF, obviously). It's extremely difficult, to the point where (as far as I know) it's never been successfully completed. The difficulty lies in not only defeating the opponents in the Tower itself, including (eventually) the ACW, but in surviving the Tower's heat. Let this thread serve to organize the trials, tribulations, and brainstorms of those of us masochistic enough to attempt it.

My working "plan" has involved elementalists for some time now (generate heir ones until starting ring is fire resistance, get fire corpse ASAP to eliminate damage, use frost bolt to level until earthquake and ball spells arrive for level 4). Unfortunately, castings of ball spells come SLOWLY even once you hit the very high (for this challenge) level necessary to get them, which leaves elementalists with basically no reliable way of killing the wyrm.

My second plan came to me recently - hurthlings. They always start with a cursed ring equipped - I could just generate hurthling PCs of any ring-getting class until I had two rings of fire resistance. At this point I thought mindcrafters might not be a bad idea - if nothing else, you have a way to handle the wyrm - but the problem lies in getting them to that point. Hell, even level 6 is going to be difficult, and I have enough problems leveling elementalists safely.

What do the rest of you do about Brimstone?

[Soirana]

Elementalists - due to early survival.

Roll good --- either heir or enough stats to take immune to pain. I'd also prefer to have some sort of darkness spell. [like wand of wonder... hopefully this can be get inside]

Roll on good day - either new year for booze or creators day for fate smile [reduces equip damage].

Do some dirty tricks - personally i planned to overflow piety for life support/mana/precrowns.

Pretty much all i know about the challenge.

[Setremedes]

Elementalists - due to early survival.

Roll good --- either heir or enough stats to take immune to pain. I'd also prefer to have some sort of darkness spell. [like wand of wonder... hopefully this can be get inside]

Roll on good day - either new year for booze or creators day for fate smile [reduces equip damage].

Do some dirty tricks - personally i planned to overflow piety for life support/mana/precrowns.

Pretty much all i know about the challenge.

Piety overflow? That's EVIL. Is there even a way to do it safely (ie without any energy bolts/summonings)?

[Soirana]

Piety overflow? That's EVIL. Is there even a way to do it safely (ie without any energy bolts/summonings)?

summonings - that is why i want darknes...

Bolts... bolts are resistable. hei ring should help.

[Maul]

Piety overflow? That's EVIL. Is there even a way to do it safely (ie without any energy bolts/summonings)?

Not evil - cheating.

[Soirana]

Not evil - cheating.

Since when? It is the way game coded. Blame Thomas if you want.

[Silfir]

It's a bug exploit. That's a bit different from cheating. As far as bug exploits go, this one is very easy to avoid (it certainly won't happen accidentally) and completely eviscerates the way piety is supposed to work. I'd say it does cheapen the accomplishment a good bit, but not enough to not make it still a huge accomplishment. If Brimstone Man gets completed with piety overflow first, completing it without would be the next worthy goal to strive for deserving of equal or higher renown.

[Maul]

It's a bug exploit. That's a bit different from cheating.

No, it really isn't. If you're doing it intentionally, knowing that it's an unintended exploit, then it's just blatant cheating.

I'd say it does cheapen the accomplishment a good bit, but not enough to not make it still a huge accomplishment.

Hmm... I've never seriously tried Brimstone Man, but from what I've gathered, the biggest parts of the challenge are constant health losses, starvation and powerful monsters. So, which one of these isn't negated by infinite prayers?

Since when? It is the way game coded. Blame Thomas if you want.

Fail analogy - just think about cheat codes programmed in by the developers in other games.

[fazisi]

As far as bug exploits go, this one is very easy to avoid (it certainly won't happen accidentally) and completely eviscerates the way piety is supposed to work.

I know I am not the only one to have his piety overflow from positive to negative. It sure as hell eviscerated my hero.

[Setremedes]

I know I am not the only one to have his piety overflow from positive to negative. It sure as hell eviscerated my hero.

Yeah, that's probably the only reason I'd ever deliberately use piety overflow - to get back to negative if I got sent to negative by an error. Hell, even then you're probably still screwed.

As far as Brimstone goes, I made it to level 8 with a mindcrafter today before I burned to a fine hurthling crisp - not a single damn corpse. I'm tempted to try out that character generator I saw in some thread, if I ever get my laptop back.