"Neverwinter" - Valindra's Tower Quiz

Answer: The city of Thay

Upon beginning Valindra's Tower, you will confront a group of Dread Fighters, Servitors and Mirror Images. Once you've defeated them, you will come upon a portal. This portal, when used, will take you into the city of Thay. It is a much different sight than when you use this to get to the Phantasmal Fortress, as it is daytime this time around, and security outside of Valindra's Tower is much, much greater than it was when you paid a visit to the Zulkir of Illusion. Perhaps this is because your slaying of the Zulkir forced Valindra's hand in heightening this security.

Answer: Twelve

Ultimately, you will need to deal with Thayan Servitors, Dread Protectors, Knights, Conjuring Red Wizards, Evoking Red Wizards, Gelatinous Cubes, a Mimic, Imps, Infernal Portals, Legion Devils, Mirror Images and Wight Soldiers in your race to meet Valindra.

The skillsets of these enemies varies greatly, so it is recommended you take a party of equally varying skillsets to compensate. Having said that, these all pose a differing level of threat; Servitors and Imps can be dealt with with little issue, but Infernal Portals, Conjuring Red Wizards and the Gelatinous Cubes can cause lots of problems if they are left undealt with. Knights and Dread Protectors have a lot of health, so the Tank is going to need a hand killing them.

The Mimic and Legion Devils hit hard, so you'll want your Tank focusing on taking hits from them once they appear. Your Devoted Cleric will need the Energons that the Conjurers summon eliminated, lest they stand to have their action points get drained, so someone will need to be able to handle those as well.

Answer: Shatterspine

Shatterspine is one nasty critter. Capable of hitting you very hard and knocking you into Disadvantage very easily, it's going to take teamwork to take this thing down. What's more is the agro accompanying Shatterspine can be very overwhelming, making this already arduous task even harder.

Answer: Yes

Given Valindra's reputation to this point, it would be disappointing for there to be a different final boss. Upon reaching the top of Valindra's Tower, you confront Valindra Shadowmantle herself. Given what Valindra can do, you absolutely need a well put together party to take her down; she is very, very bulky and hard to kill, she hits extremely hard, has multiple ways of OHKOing any character in the game, and like any boss, comes with minions to aid her in battle.

The battle will start off slow, but you must still be cautious; Valindra will frequently cast a ritual circle underneath her target's feet that, if you do not escape from in time, causes big damage and fully drains the target of their action points. If you think this sounds scary, just wait until the battle picks up. Around 75% of her health, Valindra will temporarily leave the battlefield and begin to bombard it with magical explosions.

These explosions will kill any players regardless of any protection they may have or resistances they may possess in one hit, so the only thing you can do is get out of the way.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. For characters such as Guardian Fighters who do not invest in their movement, if they are caught in the middle of a red warning area, three seconds before the explosive hits, they can very quickly end up dead with no recourse. If you think this is easy to avoid as a faster character, think again; while Valindra is blasting the battlefield, mini clones of herself are spawned. These clones cannot be killed, and will attempt to push you into the explosive's path. In addition, they attack very quickly and deal moderate damage with their touch, so non Guardian Fighters can end up dead because of them, even if Guardian Fighters themselves can handle these clones with little issue. Finally, after Valindra is done with the first round of explosives, she now brings two dastardly elements to the fight; she now will summon Wight minions to aid her in battle. However, the most vicious element is simple, random, but deadly. Valindra will select a player at random, and will summon a Phantom Claw to grab the player, holding them in place and rendering them totally helpless. The Claw will slowly drain the life out of the player while surrounding enemies may attack the player uninterrupted. If the player came without a party to help them, and their companion can't hit the Claw hard enough, they're dead. Thankfully, the Claw is easier to escape death from than Valindra's death choke at Malabog's Castle was, so there is some leeway here. Still, the party must know as soon as possible which players has been selected for the Phantom Claw so that they may destroy the Claw before it can kill the player. Having said that, communication between party members is a necessity to mitigate the threat of the Claw.

Answer: The Phantom Claw randomly grabs a player and renders them helpless in its grasp, slowly draining the player's life in the process

This element makes it a little easier for players to prepare to aid whichever party member is grabbed by the Claw, as they have a couple seconds to ready themselves, possibly by attempting to reconvene as a party to attack the Claw quickly. For the other answers, Valindra will shout out "Now you die!" before dropping magic explosions on the battlefield. Valindra will shout out "You are pitiful!" as she throws a player to the side of the battlefield. Finally, Valindra will cry out "Rise my minions!" before summoning Wights to aid her in battle.

Answer: Valindra's soul returns to a Phylactery

Upon defeating Valindra, her undead body will begin to decompose before her soul returns to a Phylactery in an unknown area. From our fight with the Zulkir of Illusion, we know that the Zulkir never had an actual physical manifestation, and that the only way we could possibly eliminate him was by destroying his Phylactery. This begs an interesting question: is the Valindra we know actually the game's reality, or is it an illusion? The Zulkir was able to transform himself into anything he wanted, meaning that Valindra could have been any number of things.

There is a theory that is commonly accepted as to what Valindra really is. This theory suggests that, because Valindra loved to be reminded of her beauty in life, she chooses to manifest her soul as something much, much uglier in undeath because she enjoys the disturbing appearance adding to the fear factor of facing her in combat. Having said that, a second theory is that, because Valindra became increasingly mentally unstable towards the end of her life, she wanted to portray herself as ugly and decomposed with her lustrous black hair she kept in life to symbolize how mentally unstable she became, despite retaining her beauty up until her death. Ultimately, these are all mere theories; Crpytic Studios has yet to make any solid statements as to what Valindra really is, leaving it largely up to open interpretation.

Answer: Valindra's Tower Key

Much like Malabog's Castle, you need the namesake key here to open this Chest. It can prove to be very costly to make, and because the rewards within the Chest can vary between useless junk and pretty awesome gear, it can be a risk.

Answer: "My ritual?! Ruined! How dare you interrupt my ritual!"

This is a bit of a trick question. Upon beginning the dungeon, a cutscene will occur. It seems that Valindra was working on a random ritual of some sort that you have ruined by entering the dungeon. She will float towards the portal to Thay and command a group of Dread Protectors to slay you, in addition to bringing your skulls to her Tower. Once you reach the top of Valindra's Tower, she will tell you that you will make for excellent undead bodyguards, suggesting that she will reanimate you to be her bodyguards once she kills you.

Answer: Guardian Fighter

Oathbound Paladins are very mediocre as a whole, but one thing they've got going for them is being the class that has the easiest time, by far, soloing this dungeon. With their Arcane Shield, they have very heavy protection against the infamous Phantom Claw.

This can also be used to stay afloat against Valindra's mini clones as she drops magic explosions on the battlefield. Finally, Oathbound Paladins conventionally invest in their HP, and because they can heal themselves, they can take Valindra's attacks without much problem. Guardian Fighters, on the other hand, will struggle mightily slaying Valindra. Better yet, they will struggle to even reach Valindra.

This class is very prone to being overwhelmed by the first magical gate's Infernal Portals and by Shatterspine and it's aggro. For as bulky as Guardian Fighters may be, they do not deal enough damage to prevent the Portals from overwhelming them with Legion Devils or keeping Shatterspine at bay. Even if a Guardian Fighter manages to overcome this, they have no defense against Valindra's Phantom Claw, which overrides the Guardian Fighter's amazing bulk completely and renders them completely helpless.

Answer: All of these

All of these are absolute necessities. If you're a Guardian Fighter and don't have all of the above, do not bother trying this dungeon alone; you have absolutely zero chance of completing it. Mass Scrolls of Life provide a useful emergency plan when dealing with Valindra, as they give you a second chance if you make a mistake within the magical explosives or get killed by the Phantom Claw.

The Greater Stones of Health are necessary simply because enemies in this dungeon, Valindra included of course, all hit very, very hard. Having insurance and a way to keep your health high will be necessary. Finally, a powerful companion may not seem necessary, but a companion that hits hard enough can potentially free a character from Valindra's Phantom Claw in time to save their life. Guardian Fighters in particular need companions like these, as they otherwise have absolutely zero defense against the Phantom Claw. For Guardian Fighters, I would recommend the Blacksmith for this task, as the Blacksmith hits hard enough to free the player from the Claw, in addition to providing useful defensive bonuses with its Active bonus.