At the end of a second runthrough with the improved Mardracht. It's difficult to tell because the game doesn't really signal when it's applying resistances, but is sure seems like he's resistance to non-magical weapons, just like the wights. I get that he was too weak before, but it was a rough fight anyway, and with all this resistance, chewing through his 90hp is a chore. And if he decides to pop his fear bubble, it's all over, since my guys basically can't hit a DC20.
I'm sure a wizard would help, but I didn't bring one this run, and mostly haven't missed them. But there may be walls you just can't get past. Unless there are some magical melee weapons laying around somewhere I can use to help out with this fight. I've yet to find one on either run.
He's a Vampire so, like Wights and Vampire Spawn, he has resistance to non-magical weapons. Hopefully, resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities will be displayed in the Bestiary when you advance it far enough; level 4/4?
By the time you encounter him you should have found some magic arrows, melee weapons and scrolls to bypass the damage resistance. I have not found any Holy Water yet but that could be something that we could craft and/or purchase in the future.
Or is he a dragon??
It would be useful to have some more hints about effects visible on enemies or how they react to some types of attacks. I mean things are characters could notice during combat.
[ COMBAT SPOILER AHEAD ]
I play 5e and suffered a total-party-wipe from a vampire who did not need the help of his two spawns, so I had a clue going in of how fearsome vampires are in 5e.
Especially as the previous female vampire I met in Solasta drained and killed my paladin in one single hit. I did Revivify on him and my paladin continued on with 8 HP maximum (+5 from Aid) and he still tanked like a boss. :P
I tried against Mardracht for fun with an exhausted party with low HP: failed.
Did a full rest, buffed, and wiped the floor with them (refusing the non violent option against undead). My paladin went ham on the vampire (and I did suffer a lot of damage back), along with my wizard, while the two others managed the undead bodyguards.
Tactical Adventures made Mardracht an old, insane and decrepit vampire --read: much weaker on some aspects-- but it is hard to say because I cannot tell if he was regenerating or not (does not seem so). He mostly did a lot of damage with basic spells cast at higher spell slots.
My main issue was waiting for him to no longer have Counterspell ... I waited a bit and later successfully cast Fireball.
NB :
I tried Daylight for fun, as the description in Solasta says "Summons daylight for you to control" :P, but realized after the fight that it is just a big bright light and should not affect vampires. On the bright side, it was a clean fight with no disadvantages on attack.
In comparison, the seemingly younger female vampire was more fearsome with her draining effect of doom !
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Dunno, some part of me feels like he shouldn't be a vampire in the normal sense, but that same part is telling me that if you manage to be peaceable with the three primary individuals (the elven necromancer lady, the skeletal captain outside, and him) they should be potential allies against the Soraks. If you kill them then you should find some secret or lost knowledge they're holding, instead, you can't even grab his spellbook (which would logically function like a normal spellbook once the mage figures out his formulas for magic, a DC ? check made once a level).
I don't think Mardracht is a vampire, I think he is possibly a Dragon, and the Master of Necromancy. 1) He never attempts to drain you, though he does cast vampiric touch, that is not the same as the 2nd level vampire boss Aska (sp?). 2) In the Solar is a clickable book that is written in draconic. Although he is the Necromancer master (assuming this based on his saying about "The other masters") he does not necessarily have any of the powers of a vampire.
At no point was it made clear that he wasn't human. In the first release, he was a very squishy wizard and nothing visibly changed other than his ridiculous hit point count.
Regardless, if we're going to be expected to fight a vampire/dragon/whatever, plus friends, I feel like I should have some opportunity to gain equipment appropriate to such a fight. But given the the state of the winter update, it seems the devs are planning to stack the combats against the PCs in every way possible, which I'm sure some players will really love, but isn't that interesting to me.