Subjunctive KoL: NaughtySorceressBattle

The Naughty Sorceress battle is incredibly difficult. The Sorceress actually has three forms. When you defeat her first form with 300 HP, she becomes a second and much stronger form with 325 HP. (Note: These HP values are maximums. I think against lower-level characters she has fewer HP.)

This is a really tough fight. The Sorceress will strip you of all effects at the beginning of battle, so buffing won't help; only intrinsic effects from equipment will do you any good.

Here are the basic powers of the Sorceress, so you know what you're up against:

• Of course, the Sorceress can attack you, doing damage.
• The Sorceress can heal herself, often undoing rounds of hard work. (This is the action where she drinks a red potion in her first form or makes a scab in the second form.)
• The Sorceress can drain MP from you.
• If you've used a skill or item which reduces her power, she can recover the lost power. (This is the action where her skin shimmers in her first form, or when her tentacles hug her in her second.)
• Finally, in order to defeat the Sorceress, you must use a specific weapon. This weapon is not so great, so using it limits your options greatly.

There are two basic strategies for equipment. A very popular strategy is to make yourself deliberately weak by equipping the Furry Suit (wolf mask and furry pants). This sharply reduces the amount of damage that the Sorceress will do to you, but it also reduces your Moxie, which can create problems for moxie classes. If you're not able to make the furry suit, or don't want to, then pick a hat and pants which have a lot of power, but try to avoid equipment which increases your stats. In general, increasing your stats is a bad idea, since it only means that the Sorceress will do more damage to you. A very useful hat to use is the Mohawk wig, which has a good power rating and has the big boost in melee damage. The star hat also isn't bad if you're planning to cast a lot of spells. For pants, the selection is less great; snowboarder pants are probably your best bet. You might also have success with ninja hot pants.

You should make sure to have an off-hand item too. Flaming talons are good if you're planning to use melee attacks, while if you're planning to use spells, then the kickback cookbook is a fine choice. Note that if you have Double-Fisted Skull Smashing, you can wield the necessary weapon in your off-hand, so your main weapon can be something which is nice and powerful.

As for accessories, damage increasers are also very nice here -- possibilities include the baconstone pendant, enchanted toothpick, hamethyst necklace, or even the eXtreme mittens. The acid-squirting flower also provides a small but reliable source of damage. The amulet of extreme plot significance is also a good choice, as it increases the number of spells or skills you can cast.

Pick a good battle familiar. The dodecapede is, obviously, an excellent choice if you have one. The ghost pickle on a stick is also popular, since it both does damage and reduces her power. Some people also recommend the MicroMechaMech, pirate skeleton, or mosquito; other people have reported success with the barrrnacle or potato, in the hopes of reducing the number of attacks she gets in. You can also try a straight-up fighter like the goat or lime. They won't do a lot of damage, but they can save you one round of combat, which is often critical.

Carrying out any strategy during battle is difficult, since she'll block a large percentage of your skills and items. Here are some possible tactics:

• Power reduction, using combat items like plot holes or wussiness potions or skills like Disco Face Stab. Plot holes are especially useful in this role since they both reduce power and do damage. In the early days of the Naughty Sorceress, this was by far the best strategy. Now, however, it seems that the Sorceress recovers her power more quickly (especially in the first form, where this power recovery seems almost instant), so it's harder to achieve success using only this tactic.
• Attack items. Cola grenades are extremely powerful against the Sorceress, but they're likely to be rare in the future. Other useful attack items include star throwing stars, torpedos, and frigid ninja stars. You can also use yo-yos and toy soldiers; toy soldiers have the advantage that you can reuse them as long as you have bottles of tequila in your inventory. Beware, though: apparently the Sorceress can steal your toy soldier! (Thanks to Joggeline for reporting this.)
• Attack skills. Skill damage is severely capped against the Sorceress, so doing a lot of damage with skills is not easy; you may be better off using lower-MP skills rather than skills like Weapon of the Pastalord and Saucegeyser which you'll only be able to use a few times anyway.
• Self-healing. It's unlikely you'll be able to beat the Sorceress without healing yourself sometime during the battle, so bring along some Homeopathic Elixir to heal yourself during battle. If you have a really good attack familiar, a viable strategy can be just keeping yourself healed and letting your familiar do the work. Thanks to the Sorceress' self-healing abilities, however, this will often take too long to be practical by itself.

Almighty Tallest has done some excellent research on exactly how the Sorceress' ability to do damage depends on your stats. See this forum thread for details.

If nothing you do seems to work and the Sorceress keeps clobbering you, don't give up! It's been pretty well-established that the Sorceress gets a little bit easier each time you fight her, so if you keep trying eventually you will triumph.

The third form -- well, it's just a matter of having the right weapon equipped. You can probably think of it if you think hard enough...

C'mon, what weapon can you think of which has appeared useless so far, but obviously is going to be useful at some point?

You must wield the

Wand of Nagamar

If you do this, you will automatically defeat the third and final form. If you don't, then the third and final form will automatically defeat you.

Once you've done this, you can smash open the prism and rescue King Ralph. Then, make any pre-ascension preparations you want to make (including choosing the appropriate familiar), and step into the rift. Congratulations, you've ascended!

Back to the NaughtySorceressLair

Back to QuestSpoilers