<font color = mediumspringgreen>O.K., maybe not, since all's fair in love and war....

I think this is really slick. The effects of area effect weapons do not reach opponents you can not see; but if you position your mage so as to see your opponents, they rush her as she is casting.

The solution to this dilemma? Have a thief hide in shadows, or cast invisibility on a party member, and position them where the intended victims are in sight. Then move spell caster just outside of the enemy range of vision and cast, say a fireball, right at the edge of the caster's range of vision, right next to the nearest enemy. Heh, heh, they take big time damage and can't figure out what happened! Heh, heh, heh, repeat as desired....

Anyone else have a slick tactic that works really well for them?

Party On!
</font>
edited to change "Trick" to "Tricks" in title

[ 10-31-2002, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

Bumrush, beat up anything that moves and is hostile, retire to the inn for ale and rest. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Oh, I forgot, here's another one that's so good, it ought to be called cheating:

When you know that a conversation with an NPC is going to lead immediately into a confrontation (typically because you've played the area before), get an invisible/hidden scout far enough forward to see the whole area. Do all your conjuring and buffering (in that order) just outside of enemy's visual range. Get everyone set up. Pause the game. Order magic users to launch area effect spells. Unpause long enough for them to get halfway into casting. Pause. Order your tank to advance closely enough to start the NPC dialogue. Unpause. If you time it right, the NPC conversation will start and pause combat actions just before your mages release their spells. When the NPC ends the dialogue with something original like, "Die you righteous scum!" your mages/priests will virually instantaneously unleash hell. It's almost as good as giving your magic users a whole round head start.

</font>

More applicable to battles in HoW because of one thing, Rings of Free Action. I mean come on... 3 of them from the same guy????

Anyway, with the 2 from Kulduhar, and one more from a spell, you can cast multiple Webs and watch your men run circles around the stuck enemies and poke them in the eyes. Heck, if you want to, you can even get your Mages to melee them because Held enemies are considered automatic hits. :D

Interesting. I've had no problem blasting out of sight monsters with area affect spells. It doesn't usually note in the log at the bottom that they are taking damage (though it does sometimes), but it does when they drop dead. And if they don't die, then the damage is more than apparent when I do reveal them.

Shoot, when I did our friendly lich in upper Dorn's last night, came in the left entrance to the tomb area where you first fight him, launched a fireball or two to the right where all the ghouls and wights are and killed at least 5 or 6 that were still in the fog of war black area.

But if you want to center perfectly, then that's a great strategy. Though I prefer using an invisibility potion on my char with the boots of speed so they can get out of the way quick. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color = mediumspringgreen>SirWillow,

Hmmm... this is odd. I was sure I was robbed of damage on my fireballs, because no log entry and also no apparent damage to monsters that came out of the fog.

Some in game testing is in order.
</font>

The druid/mage tactic is the finest in all of Faerûn. Multiple entangles, webs, spike growth, stone spike, death fog and cloudkill means that most enemies die before they ever see who killed them. Also, with your party progressing so quickly on the higher difficulty settings, casting invisibility on your thief means that you can stroll around a whole area like DE Level 3 (with the undead) and disarm all of the traps before the spell runs out. In addition, I see no ethical problem with knowing where the enemy are because of your scouting, and preparing for them in advance. :D

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Thank you, Lord Brass! Now there is something I can use!

I am always having to agonize over whether my thief should "hide in shadows" or "find traps." (In one particularly harrowing incident, my thief/Illusionist, Sashii, sprung a poison trap while sneaking around, and couldn't get healed, because she couldn't "unhide;" and the priest, therefore, couldn't find her to heal her! I finally had Sashii throw (waste) an area effect spell, to force her to become visible.) I like the idea of simultaneously being invisible AND looking for traps!

Party On!
</font>

Get some Protection from Undead scrolls. Use it, and walk into areas where there are lots of undead. They run from you. You can then pelt them with arrows and/or other ranged weapons. But, if you stroll into the fray with the whole party, people without the protection will get attacked.
Lord Brass' tactic is really good too.

I think you have wandered off in the wrong forum, because there are no such scrolls in IWD. ;) BG2 though, does have those scrolls.