The official GemStone IV encyclopedia.
A flayed gigas disciple is a hugely imposing figure. His monumental physique is all the more evident because his skin has been torn away, revealing wet and weeping tendons and raw muscle beneath. With no lips to conceal his teeth, the disciple appears to be ever grinning, but above his ruined nose are scarlet eyes ablaze with hateful zeal. A flayed gigas disciple wears a hooded shroud, ragged and threadbare, that is stained through with his own blood.
Hunting Strategies
- General Advice
- Disciples have high DS and TD, but, as primarily magical enemies, they have relatively low SMR defense for their (high) level. Hamstring, especially with Two Weapon Combat, can open them up. Unarmed combat can (literally) punch through their defenses as well, but might require setup.
- Disciples are fast and are capable of using a single combat round to shake off stun and cast the exceptionally deadly Mana Burst (1414). Inflicting Staggered via options like Feint, Sweep, or Twin Hammerfists can slow them down.
- Immobilizing stops disciples outright, but putting that into practice isn't necessarily easy. Subdue will require further setup since they're too tall while standing. Spells like Censure (316) or Bind (214) almost definitely won't have the CS to hit, barring exceptional gear or enhancives. However, Moonbeam (611) is a reliable option for immobilizing given enough training in Ranger Base.
- Silencing also stops disciples' most dangerous attacks. However, Cutthroat and Sucker Punch need additional setup due to height and Silence (210) almost definitely won't have the CS to hit. Corrupt Essence (703), although not using the Silenced mechanic strictly speaking, basically accomplishes the same thing and does work with sufficient CS.
- Bards
- Clerics
- Disciples are one of the Hinterwilds' best candidates to burn through empowered charges of Condemn (309) against (and, conversely, to save empowered charges for). It's more than possible for them to survive two empowered casts back-to-back since the spell only has a single roll to determine its power, so be ready to keep going with a third Condemn or Ethereal Censer (320) in the mix. Quivering sanguine oozes roam the same areas as disciples and can be used to recharge Condemn by starting Divine Wrath (335), which is likely to make the oozes split several times, then casting Condemn on each oozeling.
- Monks
- Twin Hammerfists into a focused mstrike can be enough for a swift victory and is more reliable for monks than other brawling professions due to their Martial Arts Mastery, though still not guaranteed. Dragonclaw (1209) triggering at any point in the mstrike will help. Fury is an option instead of mstrike, but dividing attacks up over several rounds leaves it more open that a disciple will shake off stun and interrupt the assault in any number of ways before it reaches a hit that could have been fatal, inflicted RT, or inflicted Silenced.
- Paladins
- Rangers
- Given sufficient ranks of Ranger Base, Moonbeam followed by Spike Thorn (616) usually takes out disciples in one or two casts. Moonbeam is the opener partially because of the sheer power of immobilization as mentioned above, but also because Spike Thorn needs a high endroll to accomplish its objective of killing while Moonbeam only needs a moderate endroll to accomplish its objective of keeping the disciple unable to attack.
- Wizards
- Given sufficient ranks of Wizard Base, Earthen Fury (917) is reasonably reliable at taking out disciples in one or two casts. (This is accounting for all rounds of damage and factoring in that subsequent rounds while the disciple is stunned will have a huge bonus.) Backing Earthen Fury up with a fully trained Feint (meaning all five ranks and 101 Combat Maneuvers ranks) can keep them locked down as the damage rounds go off, and that's only more true if Feint is used at 1 second of RT by having Celerity (506) active with enough Air lore.
Other Information
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