Mitigation Strategy for Idyllic Touch?

[Nonesuch2008]

The Anniversary Party seems pretty well designed in terms of finding gaps in a player's defensive strategies, as you are subjected to varying elemental attacks, death effects & physical pounding along the way. Nothing that can't be managed with solid tactics & good gear choices though, until the end fight, where an interesting wild card comes into play.

That's where the Bad Thoughts appear, cousins to the Dream Stealer quori from the Dreaming Dark, who have this lovely ability:

From DDOWiki - Idyllic Touch: This is a special on-melee strike effect all Dream Stealers get. DC30+ will save (scales with difficulty slightly). Duration is 6-9 seconds with a recurring save every 2 seconds. It's very devastating as there is no way to remove it - Remove Paralysys/Curse/Heal/etc tested, nothing will remove it. It's considered a psionic melee attack, so magical spell absorption also can not prevent it. However, Pale Masters are immune to it.

These guys don't get me every time, but if I had to label one thing in the Anniversary Party as a cause for concern, it's this encounter. As mentioned, absorption items don't work, I don't think an epic stance works and neither does a Greater Harper pin. So aside from being in PM form or pumping up your Will save value, is there another type of defense that works well for this attack?

Thanks

[Maquist]

I don't think this is really what you are looking for, but since it is an on-melee-hit effect, anything that mitigates being hit will help, too. So blur/displacement and dodge will give you some benefit. As far as actually being hit and now having to look at resisting it, I don't know. Since the Dream Stealer are evil, have you tried Protection from Evil or Magic Circle Against Evil? Since those spells are supposed to provide immunity to mental control by evil creatures, it might be worth a try.

[Nonesuch2008]

I don't think this is really what you are looking for, but since it is an on-melee-hit effect, anything that mitigates being hit will help, too. So blur/displacement and dodge will give you some benefit. As far as actually being hit and now having to look at resisting it, I don't know. Since the Dream Stealer are evil, have you tried Protection from Evil or Magic Circle Against Evil? Since those spells are supposed to provide immunity to mental control by evil creatures, it might be worth a try.

Hmmm I do have a PfE clickie, but I can't remember if it was still active during that fight or not. I will make a point to make sure I use it before I do that fight & see if I get held. Will likely have to test it over several runs to be sure, but if it still happens, I will report back.

Thanks

[Nonesuch2008]

Hmmm I do have a PfE clickie, but I can't remember if it was still active during that fight or not. I will make a point to make sure I use it before I do that fight & see if I get held. Will likely have to test it over several runs to be sure, but if it still happens, I will report back.

Ugh, that's a negative on Protection from Evil. After I killed Jeets, there were still 3 quori floating around, so I let them have at me while I had PfE active. Several saves against them when they used ego whip and hold person, but they used Idyllic Touch on me 4 times in that span, and every single one hit. It didn't help that my rolls were 4, 11, 12 and 4 & that I wasn't trying to get out of their way, but short of not getting hit or being able to make the save, I haven't found another way to avoid the effect.

[Connman]

My tactic.

[Maquist]

Ugh, that's a negative on Protection from Evil. After I killed Jeets, there were still 3 quori floating around, so I let them have at me while I had PfE active. Several saves against them when they used ego whip and hold person, but they used Idyllic Touch on me 4 times in that span, and every single one hit. It didn't help that my rolls were 4, 11, 12 and 4 & that I wasn't trying to get out of their way, but short of not getting hit or being able to make the save, I haven't found another way to avoid the effect.

Well, at least that answers that question. Thanks for checking into it.

[Niminae]

The Anniversary Party seems pretty well designed in terms of finding gaps in a player's defensive strategies, as you are subjected to varying elemental attacks, death effects & physical pounding along the way. Nothing that can't be managed with solid tactics & good gear choices though, until the end fight, where an interesting wild card comes into play.

That's where the Bad Thoughts appear, cousins to the Dream Stealer quori from the Dreaming Dark, who have this lovely ability:



These guys don't get me every time, but if I had to label one thing in the Anniversary Party as a cause for concern, it's this encounter. As mentioned, absorption items don't work, I don't think an epic stance works and neither does a Greater Harper pin. So aside from being in PM form or pumping up your Will save value, is there another type of defense that works well for this attack?

Thanks

Maybe just high saving throws? I've run the Anni Party a bunch of times (15+) between 15th and 17th levels running at level +4 or +5 and have never been paralyzed in the final fight. I'm currently running a druid, and I just run up to Jeets, pop body of the sun, lightning storm, and earthquake, then start the dialogue, dot him up with creeping and greater creeping, throw creeping doom, and block until I need to refresh the dots. After Jeets dies I usually have a couple bad thoughts or bad stuff to clean up and then it's loot time.