[Olorin]

You mentioned the Contagion--Ray of Enfeeblement combo to Str drain enemies to death.

Another way to do that is using an archer above level 12. One of the effects of their called shot is to drain 1 point of str from target. Unfortunately, this drain only lasts 1.5-2 rounds, but with ray of enfeeblement and good ApR, you can easily sap five points of strength before the first drains wear off.

Also, combining whirlwind/greater whirlwind and called shot will give even more attacks per round (although called shot has a short duration, 10 seconds, and seems to only work for the first 8 attacks with whirlwind (using called shot means having to wait a round before using deathblow because of alatricity).

I was able on some tests to kill Aerie with STR 10, by using called shot--whirlwind--called shot--attacks. Whirlwind took her down to 2 str, which I was able to finish off with regular attacks after reapplying the called shot. The str drain effect punches through stoneskin or ironskin as well (but not protection from the proper weapon spells).

Taking down enemy mages with Ray of Enfeeblement and called shot will bypass their stoneskins.

The real cheese would be to create a custom party with multiple archers...if they all target the same enemy, their str drains will stack and overcome the short duration. You could also use the fireseed trick to have the str drain effect multiple enemies. Or with an evil cleric to control undead that have their own strength drain effect to add to the fun.

One note on using this trick--unless your target has contingencied stoneskins, or you're using the Ray of Enfeeblement combo, the strength drain will only kill strong enemies (because weaker ones will be killed by the archer's massive damage first)

--edit: I forgot, if your archer is using longbows, then the damage won't build up so fast. I did my test using a regular shortbow, regular arrows. After enfeebling Anomen, the five shots nearly killed him just with the damage. Since longbows are bugged regarding damage bonuses, they won't do nearly as much damage as a crossbow or shortbow.

If you want to try this on creatures that require blunt weapons, or high enchantments to hit, don't forget that the archer bonuses apply to slings as well.

[ 02-15-2003, 08:07 PM: Message edited by: Olorin ]