Best Carceri Build

[*Lost and not Found]

I would not make the claim that the innate spell resistance becomes useless like the Druid/Cleric spell-based 'Spell Resistance'. The Yugoloths are quite unlikely level 30 casters. ;)

[*Tildryn]

Nor is the person with SR in Carceri likely a level 30 Drow/Yuan-Ti or Monk. ;)

Character Level 25 (ECL 27) + 11 (Drow) = 36 SR

26 SR after Disjunction

I expect they're at least caster level 23-25. Especially the last tier that begin to spawn at level 27+.

Even a level 25 caster vs a level 28 Drow with no spell penetration feats is only having to roll 28 + 11 = 39 - 10 = 29... a 4 or better to beat their SR. I really wouldn't depend on a 15% resistance chance at max level vs mobs an effective 5 levels below you.

If you wanted to go pure non-ECL monk and drop all your feats into Improved SR, you could get 7 epic feats to spend in it for +14 SR. At level 30, that'd be a grand total of:

30 + 10 + 14 = 54 SR

44 after Disjunction.

A level 25 caster thereby needing to roll a 19 or 20 to beat it. 90% resistance chance.

That would be adequate protection. As a pure level 30 monk with every feat in Improved SR.

A non-maxed Monk at say, level 25 though? 4 Epic feats possible by that point.

25 + 10 + 8 = 38 SR - 10 = 28 SR, CL 25 = 3+ to beat, 10% resistance.

[*Lost and not Found]

Which all goes by presuming the Bigby's have a caster level that high.

And with the little drop of HiPS, even if a Mord's Disjunction hits you, you can chill out for a while.

[*Tildryn]

Which all goes by presuming the Bigby's have a caster level that high.

And with the little drop of HiPS, even if a Mord's Disjunction hits you, you can chill out for a while.

Except that wasn't the current subject. The subject was how much innate SR you'd need to reliably avoid them.

You can try to change the topic, but some of us have memories longer than goldfish, Lost. ;)

[*Lost and not Found]

If you got that bit of SR, HiPS, and rather quick fingers, you can reliably avoid Bigby's spells. I've done it, everyone else should also be able to do it.

And the Goldfishes are rather well known for their ability to connect different points. ;)

[*Ultimabob]

I have finally gotten to Carceri and I have to say that I found it a bit disappointing. I love the other areas, but this was a bit of a letdown. I find it too one-dimensional: all about Bigby. The non-caster critters are too easy and never seemed to threaten anyone I was with. The casters only seemed to really be a threat when they got a Bigby off. Their other spells didn't really cause anyone much stress. (note: no-ac wizards who get mordsed excepted)

So yes, this is a very tough area to solo because of the Bigby. It just isn't cost effective as 1 in say 3 times through you will get the Bigby and die. That being said, with 2 players it is very easy as one person just needs to stay in stealth, etheral, or behind the first person and rescue him if Bigbyed (etheral him or clear the area). Basically, just keep it so that both of you are never exposed at the same time so that there cannot be a double Bigby and you are fine. The monsters are easy enough that one person can clear them without much trouble - until the Bigby.

So yeah, I'd prefer that the area were toughened up a lot: much tougher melee threat, a wider variety of truly threatening spells, but less focus on a single unstoppable all-or-nothing spell threat.

That being said, given things are as they are, I got to thinking what the best build would be that is designed to solo Carceri. Actually, while he didn't say this was its purpose, I went through with a Deep Gnome who said he was a Monk/Swash/WM/Duelist. It didn't occur to me later, but maybe this was his idea of a build designed to beat Carceri as he had little problem with anything there. In retrospect I wonder if he was:

Monk 13/Duelist 5/WM 7/Swashbuckler 3 with 5 Improved SR feats.

Is High SR the key to beating Carceri reliably solo? Any other ideas?

[*Tildryn]

I solo Carceri with both a very buff-reliant build (Favoured Soul based), and a completely unbuffed build (Rogue based).

I rarely if ever get hit by Bigby spells. There's only one classification of enemy there that casts them, and they don't pop up very often - and should be first priority to be killed when they do.

The key to Carceri is all about priorities, and keeping on the move.

[*Ultimabob]

Good point. Maybe I have given into the hype. I haven't been through that many times, and I was rushed so I never got a chance to look over the logs. I have been bigbyed twice in the 3 times I have gone through as a group. But no one really seemed to know which enemies were the main threats and their were no targeting priorities.

So I have to guessw the best way to do this is to first go as a group when it is safe, and pay attention to: 1) who casts what and 2) what kind of casting order they have. Then when you solo you know who to go after first and have a general feel of when a dangerous spell is coming in the casting progression.

[*Lost and not Found]

When I go there, I usually find my character a target for 3-10 bigby's per minute.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

As per the Carceri portals recommendation, it is designed for groups more than soloing.