The HoF from scratch party has been rolling along for a while, with no real problems. That has changed, so I'm willing to entertain suggestions.

I'm at the entrance to DE lvl 4. I don't particularly want to set the adventurers free, because it means less XP for my party. My standard modus operandi is to buff up, set a nasty spelltrap in the entryway to help me whittle down the onrushing horde, and expose the Eldathyn by talking to the gatekeeper with a paladin. From there, I go directly after the summoner, taking out the 4 yuan-ti mages along the way. Therefore, I need to get past the entrance with sufficient spells left to take out the mages - I probably won't need much for the summoner itself.

Here's the problem: I buff up, set my spelltrap, expose the Eldathyn... then I can't manage to kill the librarian before he wipes out half of my party with Ice Storm and Fireball. That Slow is murderous, too.

I've tried it three times so far. Four characters together cannot manage to kill Geelo and Albion in time, despite the hammer flail, Presio's poison dagger, etc. The other two characters are needed to replace summons and otherwise whittle down the swarming monsters.

Is it possible to kill off these nasties in the way I want to, including the summoner, or do I have to change up my strategy (e.g. set up shop in the library and take out Geelo first, using all six characters, thereby losing the quest xp gained from talking to Albion with a paladin)?

I haven't ever played HoF, but IMHO the above is the best course to take.

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1. I'm almost sure that you still get XP for exposing Albion no matter whether you do it with a Paladin or by using the books or carpet method. Are you sure that using a paladin gives you more XP.</font>
2. Even if you do lose the XP it can't be that much. AFAIK HoF quest XP is only doubled from normal and is same as that on insane.</font>

Also consider not exposing Albion, going to summoner, bashing door open to make them hostile, going directly to summoner and killing him before fighting anyone else.

The other Adventurers aren't that much of a help, thye just serve as fodder. I would recomend freeing them.

Well, I did on the sixth attempt, after tweaking my strategy a bit. I didn't even have to release the adventurers.

I put all my characters in the library, summoned some big fat bears, and buffed up. Cast 2 Entangles on the library doorway, then sent the paladin out to talk to Albion while the R/C and F/T stood beside Geelo. Upon exposing Albion and running my pally back in, the R/C and F/T whaled on Geelo while bard cast Chromatic Orb and F/M cast Vitriolic Sphere. They both hit, and all characters except bard and F/D picked Geelo apart. The F/D cast 5 Spike Growth just past the library doorway and the F/M put 2 Stinking Clouds on the same spot after Geelo was down. R/C cast Curse, Prayer, and Recitation. Non-casting characters missiled anything that made it through the doorway. F/D cast Produce Fire on the doorway and got a couple of trolls. After that, it was just a matter of mopping up.

The trick to taking out the yuan-ti mages is (of course) not allowing them to cast by use of area-effect spell-disrupting spells. I used two Entangles, the one remaining Spike Growth, Skull Trap, Vitriolic Sphere, the ubiquitous summons, and the ever-useful single-target spells. I summoned bombardier beetles right next to two of the mages, and got one stunned and one deafened, which helped. The summoner was easy after that (summons and missile weapons), which was good because I had burned almost all of my spells.

A rest on lvl 3 allowed for easy cleaning of the rest of lvl 4, and I've now moved on to lvl 5.

[ 11-21-2005, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

This is more or less the method I use. Set up most of the party in the library, especially a stealthed Thief behind Geelo. Summons at the ready, and just the Paladin to talk to Albion, before having him run/jump/fly back to the library.

Then it is the usual method of concentrating fire at a chokepoint.

And thus defeating them all and earning some major XP.

Yeah. :D

The only problem is that my characters are at the stage (lvl 9 or so in each class) where it takes a big influx of XP to increase in level. The only character to go up a level was the bard (big whoop, as it was already past lvl 11). The party has about 680 000 xp each. On to DE lvl 5, one of my favourite areas of the entire game. I really wish I had some 5th lvl mage spells about now...

So true. Some of them can be either your biggest asset, or your worst enemy. The 5th level spells, I mean.

Yeah. Pretty well all of the damage spells can do you some serious harm if you aren't careful. I do love Shroud of Flame, though. And there's almost no better spell for a F/M than Cone of Cold. I won't be getting those for a while. :(

Cone of Cold is perfect for a solo fighter/mage, or one you are going to handle instead of putting it on AI. He gets behind your characters and casts it... Byebye front line fighters.