Minauros
From HGWiki
Minauros is the third layer of the Hells and requires The Workshop tag to enter.
A fetid swamp of mire and pollution, acidic rain, bitter winds, and flesh-slicing hails rule the bog of Minauros. In places the dank water boils and steams with infernal heat. Terrible creatures with no names swim the murky waters, and even devils fear to stray too far from their cities. The City of Jangling Hiter is suspended above the bog of Minauros from thick metal links. The kytons that rule this city generally consider each other equal, though they often defer to a particularly clever kyton named Quimath, who resides in Panos Qytel, a cathedral-like structure in the heart of this City of Chains.
~ from Volo's Guide to Baator, Abridged, 3rd Edition.
Contents |
Introduction
Minauros takes usually takes between 1.5 - 2 hours to complete. It is home to all manner of swamp lurking evil, including the dreaded Mammon's Tears.
Note:
Occasionally the boss area trap kicks in before it is supposed to on map three Quimath's Hold due to Quimath himself spawning prematurely, you will see messages about being entangled in Quimaths chains and an Evard's Black Tentacles type visual effect, if this happens prior to the boss room being entered LOG OUT there is nothing you can do to survive and it will eventually kill you and your party causing you all to Limbo.
Party Needs
- Parties should ideally consist of a bard, several tanks, druid, cleric and mage. Since Hamatula's are extremely common there should be at least one druid or cleric unless you enjoy festering.
- You must also have an efficient way of destroying Mammon's Tears, such as arcane casters (BFM being very effective) or tanks armed with Mammons Wrath, make sure this is addressed before the run starts. *Dealing with tears is addressed in more detail below.
- Also some sort of critical hit immunity is required for the boss as he has the NWN 'vanilla' version of Devastsating Critical.
General Guide
| Layer | AB | AC | E:Imm | P:Imm | Sk | Sv | DC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 3% | 5% | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | 6% | 10% | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 9% | 15% | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | 12% | 20% | 8 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | 4 | 7 | 15% | 25% | 10 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 5 | 9 | 18% | 30% | 12 | 3 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | 10 | 21% | 35% | 14 | 4 | 3 |
| 8 | 6 | 12 | 24% | 40% | 16 | 4 | 3 |
| 9 | 7 | 13 | 27% | 45% | 18 | 5 | 3 |
| 10 | 8 | 15 | 30% | 50% | 20 | 5 | 4 |
| 11 | 8 | 16 | 33% | 55% | 22 | 6 | 4 |
| 12 | 9 | 18 | 36% | 60% | 24 | 6 | 4 |
| 13 | 10 | 19 | 39% | 65% | 26 | 7 | 5 |
Acid and Magical are the two most important immunities to cover on Minauros. Tears will constantly inflict acid vulnerabilities so don't be afraid of putting too much on and restore frequently. There is no mord but breach is very common with Cornugons on the second and third maps. Be very very careful dominating creatures on Minauros. A dominated Advespa will not hesitate to attack Tears and can cause a lot of grief for parties (many have wiped this way), a lot of parties will simply not use dominate on this layer.
First Map: Fetid Swamp
Minauros spawns introduce several new enemies that must be overcome. Spawns are most often populated by Kocrachon, Barbazu, Kyton, Erinyes, Hamatula, Swamp Devils,Osyluth, Murkfiends, Mammon's Tears, and Spinagon.
As with Dis, Kocrachon are common and should be removed or disabled (druids/shifters are good at this) as quickly as possibly to stop their healing ability. There are lots of Spinagon and they are a good target for clerics to Heartbane or Arcanes to disintegrate as they tend to spawn towards the back of the main enemies and running towards them can cause additional spawning. Hamatula also return from Dis and will constantly inflict people with festering wounds. They are easily imploded, drowned or even meleed if you are well equipped with Magical immune.
New enemies include Kytons and Swamp Devils which both have a DC 40 KD check vs Str but are easily destroyed via melee, wail, implosion or drown. Osyluth's have a special DC 55 Fortitude check vs Death, but this can be prevented completely with poison immunity from an item.
Mammon's Tears are a very unique and dangerous enemy. When damaged by physical attacks/spells Tears have a chance to split and duplicate, creating even more of themselves. This process never ends and so everyone in party must be careful to never hit Tears, the Tears have a particularly low ac so using a non-proficient weapon or non-damage item such as a bard harp or caster staff can still cause them to split. Fire brands, Combust, Enervate, Fireball, Delayed Blast Fireball, Energy Drain, Finger of Death, Fire Orbs, all types of Inflict Wounds (although not Harm), Elemental Swarm or Clenched Hand are the most effective ways of destroying Tears. The only way a tank should hit Tears is if they possess a Mammons Wrath, buffing these weapons can make them do significant damage to all tears including paragon ones, they already have +14 GMW and tears have a very low AC (they like being split!) so proficiency with Morningstars is not critical. Tears inflict plenty of Acid vulnerability so use restores liberally. Paragon (Dolorous) Tears have immunity to lower level spells so brands and the like will no longer function on them.
Since the first map is partly underwater it is difficult to see loot spots. You can tilt the camera down to help find them but the easiest solution if you are unsure where they is simply to ask someone to point them out to you. There is a named Kyton named Fodorz who drops an energy matrix to use at the end of the map, it is a good idea to pick this up as soon as you kill him to prevent painful matrix hunting under the slime when you get to the barrier at the end of the map and discover you can't open it.
Second Map: Jangling Hiter
Spawns on the second map are fairly similar to those on the first except there are no more set Minauran Murkfiends or Swamp Devils. There are plenty of Cornugons on the second and third map so breach protection is a good idea for the buff reliant.
There are no named devils or energy matrices on this map.
Third Map: Quimath's Hold
Spawns on the last map of Minauros are like those on the second map with the addition of Baatorian Steel Golems. They are not very dangerous and can be imploded, crumbled, disintegrated or simply melee'd to death. They do have a deafening ability which adds stacking spell failure each round but this is easily remedied with a restore. Maelephants spawn here and can KD or confuse if you fail the relevant checks. Soul Shells appear and negative protection or ideally UEF is required to prevent them level draining you although as they slowly breach these effects onhit you will need to recast occasionally. There is a named Kyton named Ngdril on this map who drops an energy matrix.
The Minauros boss fight with Quimath is much more challenging than the Dis boss fight and has a lot of potential for things to get interesting. When everyone is rested and buffed, the entire party must run into the boss room at once (usually someone will count down), this is the first Hells run where the non-boss area trap kicks in meaning that if you stay outside the boss room you will receive increasing ammounts of trap damage until you die. Along with Quimath, a vast array of other creatures will spawn, some of which are often randoms. Party members should play to their strengths targeting key problem enemies such as randoms, Kocrachons and Kyton. Those who have greater ruins should use them immediately. All of Quimath's minions should be killed first before focusing on Quimath himself.
Quimath has two special abilities of which you must be aware. The first are his chains. While fighting him he will create an expanse of chains (looks like the Evards Black Tentacles spell) around himself that inflict physical vulnerabilities and do increasingly large amounts of physical damage. These chains cannot be gusted until he is dead so if you have to fight him from within the chains, watch your health bar closely and restore often, running around in the chains is not advisable it is better to stand in one place and fight him if possible. Casters and Archers can fight him from outside the chains. The second ability is that his weapon does Dev Crit. Unless you are immune to critical hits, each time Quimath swings at you and gets a critical hit, you must make a fortitude save or die. Hence crit immune tanks should try to tank Quimath to stop him rampaging through the rest of the party. The bard epic Dirge Of The Deathless grants immunity to critical hits so if available can be of great aid during this boss fight. Note: There is a second spawn point in the boss room near the exit corridor, if you don't want an even more painful boss fight it is probably best not to run around near this during the melee. After Quimath there is still one small spawn left in the loot room.
Class Specific Guides
Tanks
Where the golden rule of Dis for tanks was 'never hit machines,' the rule of Minauros is 'never hit tears.' Each time you hit a tear they have a chance to split creating more enemies for your party to kill, so avoid them at all costs. Be careful you don't cleave onto a tear after killing another opponent (this happens a lot with rangers/assassins in party). Using heal pots is the best way to break attack and stop yourself hitting them (pearls are good too, since they restore the avid vuln inflicted by tears). The only way you can hit tears safely is if you posses a Mammons Wrath. Priority targets should be Kyton, Kocrachon, Spinagon, Swamp Devil, Hamatula and Erinyes. Arcane archers can use the imbue arrow ability and target either mobs near the Tears or a suitable innanimate object (such as an already popped loot or something you've placed on the ground) as long as they do not directly target the Tears they will not split from the imbue damage.
Druid
After NB, stoning/drowning Kocrachon should be a priority. Using Elemental Swarm or empowered Firestorm on Tears is extremely effective as well. Stoning/Drowning Barbazu, Spinagons, Kyton, Swamp Devils, Hamatula and Erinyes is very effective as well. Your best spells against Quimath himself are Creeping Doom plus Elemental Swarms and Quillfire.
Arcane Caster
Swamp Devils, Osyluth and Murkfiends are all very susceptible to wail/weird and are a good way to quickly kill off parts of a spawn. Disintegrate is also extremely effective at eliminating enemies quickly and from extreme range, Spinagons are priority targets for this spell as you will not need to move towards them potenmtially spawning more creatures. Mages can do fantastic damage to Tears using Energy Drain, Finger of Death and Enervate. The Fire Orb spells can be very effective as well. Against Quimath Acid Spells such as the Orb spells and Melfs Acid Arrow are very good.
Cleric
There's plenty of stuff to implode at Minauros, but no essential priority targets like Machines on Dis. Barbazu, Spinagons, Kyton, Swamp Devil, Hamatula and Erinyes all enjoy being imploded and are good targets. Inflicts are a very effective way of doing damage to Tears although Harms are not effective. Heartbane can be a good way of removing that annoying Spinagon (or Spinarch) without having to close with them.
Bard
Excluding randoms there are no Pit Fiends or Malebranches on Min so there's no need to conserve UUU, use it liberally and keep the casters on their feet. Swamp Devils and Kyton have a DC 40 KD check vs Strength and Advespa have a DC 36 KD check vs Dexterity so have UUU up for these enemies. There is plenty of acid vulnerability infliction so use restores and mass cure wounds on tanks as they get beaten up by Tears. Note also that on the first map you can't see the curse circle at your enemies feet, so you might need to use a few extra curses to ensure everything is cursed. For the boss fight use Dirge of the Deathless if you have it, since it protects the party against Quimath's Dev Crit ability. When Quimath is on his own spam mass cure wounds and restores on all the tanks to help them deal with the chain inflicted physical vulnerabilities.
