Greetings, all! I've heard that injuring but not killing Senshock the Wizard on Temple4 will cause him to offer surrender. If you accept, he warps away and appears as a merchant in Verbobonc. What does he sell? What other effects does this have? Does the rest of the Senshock Temple4 fight immediately end if you accept?
He turns up at the Bazaar of the Bizarre (the same place that has the wand seller and the scroll seller) and sells various magic items (mostly wondrous items rather than weapons or armor, iirc). He teleports out, rather than negotiating a surrender- the tricky thing is preventing him doing too much damage first (he casts a couple of save-or-dies), without killing him off too quickly.
Buff with Death Ward and Protection from Evil, use your heavy damage on his support and hit him with medium stuff like Magic Missile and Searing Ray
I have tended to stick him in a Resilient Sphere while I take out the supporting elementals. Last playthrough I tried something different and he kept triggering AoEs from my melee monsters, the fool.
Yeah, sorry, he triggered attacks of opportunity, not area of effect (running round near a cleric with Divine Power, Righteous Might and a holy ranseur can be hazardous).
You can still harvest him for XP/ visit righteous justice upon him for past crimes (delete according to alignment) when you encounter him in Verbobonc, though the higher level you are when you do so, the lower the CR-based reward. It may be worth it for the savings in crafting XP, though.
I'm still on level 3 so I have time to consider his fate. I'll see what crafting I'm capable of at that time.
Does he actually have anything that is not sold in the bazarre of wondrous items or by one of his two female disciples. If not, and that's what I think, there is no good reason to not finish one of the few battles with an oppising high lvl spellcaster with good ai.
His assistants sell wands and scrolls only, but the GUY with the STRANGE speech impediment is an alternative source of wondrous items. Between him, what I can loot/ buy elsewhere, and what I can craft, I haven't noticed anything that Shenshock has to sell that I desparately want, but I can't claim to have compared inventories. I tend to agree with you: this is a pretty good caster fight, and for me the balance probably tips in favour of killing him in temple rather than saving him for later.
While Senshock has a Nice selection, if you are doing a lot of crafting he is worth more as kill XP for your crafters to use. On the other hand, if you have a Paladin you can let him go and kill him AND his 2 apprentices for more XP at Verbonboc
