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Hmmmm... ...

I found the final boss fight... anti-climactic. Oh the setup was wonderfully done and everything was there for a memorable fight except for the actual combat itself... ... I fought on Core Difficulty, so I suppose I could increase the difficulty, but considering that this was my first completion of the game, and my second attempt( first attempt ended at the Severed Hand), I was expecting more difficulties from the final conflict. I mean... I had zippo knowledge of what to expect and I still managed to lay the smack down. Heck... I think my hardest fight in the game was when I had fight the Fire Giants with an average party level of 10.

I defeated the final boss with an average party level of 12 by the way. *Sniff* My Mage never got to use his level 7-9 spells, and my Cleric never got to use her level 7 spells. :(

On the bright side, credit to the IWD team for the ending which literally made my jaw drop. I so totally did not expect the narrator to be the enemy in the end. Heh, heh... ...

In other news... I need to know this... do Contingencies and Spell Triggers exist in IWD?!?! ARRGGGHHHH!!!! So many good area-of-effect spells that I cannot use them because they are not party friendly! :mad: It is a pain to cast one spell on one target one after another... sometimes I get the feeling I should just create pom-poms for my Mage... The most common combo I use is Greater Malison + Chaos, followed by liberal amounts of Magic Missiles. Effective to a degree yes... but there is no style! ARRGGGHHHH!!!!

Chain Lightning? Oops... Mordenkainen's Force Missiles, cool but the splash effect is nasty to my party... Acid Sphere? Okay, this spell is actually usable as my party members usually have good saves against Polymorph... Burning Shroud? I still suffer the nightmare and remember how my Cleric caught fire while trying to heal those who caught fire... etc... ...

Dundee,

Nowhere in IWD / HOW or TOL are spell triggers or contingencies available to player characters. Hostile NPC's may have them available as scripts but YOU can't get them. Sorry.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Micah Foehammer:
Dundee,
Nowhere in IWD / HOW or TOL are spell triggers or contingencies available to player characters. Hostile NPC's may have them available as scripts but YOU can't get them. Sorry.<hr></blockquote>

ARRGGGHHHH!!!!

Screw it! My party can roast in Hell for all I care! My Necromancer( third party) is going to use all the juicy area of effect spells, party health be damned!

ROTFLMAO

F' em if they can't take a joke! fdl

So this necromancer must be chaotic????

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Micah Foehammer:
ROTFLMAO
F' em if they can't take a joke! fdl
So this necromancer must be chaotic????<hr></blockquote>

Chaotic Good.

So how did you fight the last battle?

I tried to disarm the traps but still cannot....

All my party members got whacked to hell

<font color = lightgreen>You can't disarm those traps. Use your thief to find them and then avoid them from that point on. Use potions of giant strength and speed to remove the "servants" and then spread your fighters out so that the main bad guy engages only one at a time. As he hops around, have the closest fighter hit him hard and fast while other use ranged attacks. Persistence is the key to victory.</font>

Got it... managed to kill him after a few tries.... but after the end... I can't export my party out for HOW??? how much exp do i get from killing belhifet???

Hi Dundee,
Got to agree with you, the combat in the final battle was not too tough. It took me several attempts to figure out the way passed the Crystal Sentries but then my party of 4 just walked into the final stage unprepared - just to see how hard it was - and was able to muddle through at the first attempt. Whenever the going gets tough, I like to call upon some helpers and the Fire Elemental I used in this fight performed like a hero.

Also agree that the Fire Giants were really hard - until I figured out how to avoid the fight in the doorway and got my party into a better position before initiating the combat. (More work here for the Fire Elemental). Like you I haven't had much chance to get to the really top spells, but there have still been one or two incidents of damage due to 'Friendly Fire'. Still there's always HOW and ICW2 to look forward to.

<font color="cyan">The end boss was similar to BG1's I thought: just concentrate on the main baddy....

I went in, he dispelled straight away. Cloud Giant to my Ranger, Paladin and Fighter. They ran for the kill. Traps hit. Cleric went with, cast chant. Defensive Harmony too. Then Mage cast Haste. By this time, the Iron Golems got here.
Argggh...they are attacking my Mage. Stoneskin. Iron Golems out of the fight. Cleric cast that level 7 spike spell (cant remember its name).

Then he hit the deck.

1st time I beat him, but lost two characters. So i reloaded, beat him again (same tactics), didnt lose one.

And I thought that the narrator twist was one of the greatest twists I can remember in a game. Ok, so it doesn't alter the game much. But it sets it up for a sequal just too nicely..its perfect. It lets you know that the story was from his point of view, and it is accurate. It is accurate because it is him, criticising his mistakes after his 100yrs imprisonment...he is analysing himself..he isn't saying the heroes did well,,,,hes saying he didn't do well..and he'll be back.

So, IWD2 beckons...will it be the same enemy...I think so.</font>

I did not know I was entering the boss area, so my party entered with no buffs, and unaware of what to expect.

I thought, "Damn."

I did not reload however, because I wanted to see what the fight would be like. Fight starts, he casts Dispel Magic, but... there is nothing on my party to be dispelled except my Mage's stoneskins. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

My party consisted of the following,

Paladin,
Fighter,
Fighter/Thief,
Fighter archer,
Mage,
Cleric.

My Cleric immediately began casting Recitation, while I sent the Paladin to one Iron Golem, the Fighter to one Iron Golem, and my F/T to Belhifet. My Archer whipped out some Arrows of Piercing and assisted in dealing with the Iron Golems.

The Iron Golems were not much of a problem, and they fell quick. My Cleric casted Prayer by this time also, and began passing potions to the tanks because she was the one with all the Potion Bags.

*sniggle* I can imagine her in real life, throwing potion bottles to the tanks. "Here! Catch!" [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

My Mage meanwhile... er... er... gee... he did not do anything because everybody was 100% magic resistant... ...

The Heavenly Fires were a nuisance, and my tanks drank Potions of Fire Resistance during their melee scrum to reduce the damage. The Paladin's Lay on Hands was nice too, saving my F/T from death in the nick of time.

It was my Archer who dealt the death blow though. At 4 attacks per round, he was the fantasy verion of the Marine with a Vulcan Cannon. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Anyhoo, I completed IWD + HoW yesterday with a third party, and the only difference this time was that the boss fight included two more demons, but I knew what to do already, and smacked the boss back to the abyss where he belongs.

I created a fourth party and set the difficulty to Heart of Fury.

Paladin,
Fighter/Cleric,
Fighter/Druid,
Necromancer,
Thief/Illusionist,
Bard.

Heh, I am trying out the Bard and Druid class this time. Out of curiosity though, which one do you think is better? A Ranger/Cleric, or a Fighter/Cleric? I am focusing more on tank value between the two.

Dundee,

Are you planning on dualing them or multi-classing the ranger/cleric and fighter/cleric?

If dualing them, then the fighter/cleric is superior in tank value as you can pump up proficiency slots beyond 2 in certain weapons before the dual and then get them back after. (assuming you dual the fighter somewhere between 7th and 9th level).

If its Multi-class, you'll be stuck at two stars each in proficiency slots and in THAT case, since the TANK value is the same, I would take the ranger/cleric to have access to both Clerical AND Druid spells!

Hmmmm... but do multiclassed Ranger/Clerics have access to all the Druid spells? I had a Ranger/Cleric before, but it was frustrating because it took the Ranger side so long to level up, that my Fighter/Thief was a better tank. If Ranger/Clerics do not receive all the Druid spells, then I think I will stick to the Fighter/Cleric.

As for dualclassing, well, I am not a big fan of dualclassing. Heh. It is a personal thing.

PS: When I refer to dualclassed characters, I write them as such,

Fighter->Thief

No, ranger/clerics can only get up to 6th level druid spells and access to all clerical spells but that's still not too bad.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Micah Foehammer:
No, ranger/clerics can only get up to 6th level druid spells and access to all clerical spells but that's still not too bad.<hr></blockquote>

I see, so I only miss out on level 7 spells. Man, it is a b**** to level up the Ranger class though. Since I am playing HoF mode now though, I guess I will stick with the Ranger/Cleric then.

Thanks for the information.

<font color="cyan">One thing.

IWD2, is set 30yrs after the original. But your arch enemy from IWD1 is imprisoned for 100years, so you dnt fight him. Also, not being able to import supports this. Totally new stuff!!</font>