I have the feeling I'm missing some(several)thing(s)

First, as an aside, 8 million xp's?. I'm reasonably sure I've done everything in ToB and yet have only about 4.5 mill xp's per char. Did watchers keep, killed everyone as far as I know, and am in the final battle sequence.

Maybe I should have installed ToB before finishing SoA? I maxed out in SoA long before final chapter there....

Any way the final battle and my inabilty to have any ability...

Here is where I am

1) Finished the fith challange on my pocket plane.

2) Went to portal and said

'I am ready for the final battle'

3) Showed up in the Abyss chated w/ Meli and fought the first battle w/ Jon
and Bodi and the Imoen the slayer and all (though to lose Iomen this way, but the writing was on the wall I guess)

4)Fought 3 battles for 3 pools

5) Right after 'drinking' from the 3rd pool there are just moments before Meli appears again w/ all my fallen kin.

I just have time to get of 1 round of prep spells and then the 5th battle begins.

And all I am is toast. I mean everybody (who's trying to kill me) fires off several spells, the lava bomb disrupts all of mine and those 4 are on be like ugly on a dog. I assume Balazar is in there somewhere, I just haven't been able to stick around long enough for him to kill me too.

Now everyone talks about the spike trap (I don't mind cheeze, I just want to finish this) option, but I don't have anyone who could set one anyway. Also there is not enought time before Meli spawns.

I tried using that dominate demon special ability, it seemed to have no effect.
(I guess the fallen 5 aren't demons but I am desperate)

So have I missed something or am I just not cut out to win this game?
(uneasy feeling grows after having typed that sentence......)

[ 05-13-2003, 02:26 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

Have you tried "final battle"+"search" button? Whatkind of party you have?

I've view several final battle of the final battle entries and gleaned the following info:

Assist Balzaar to ensure he does not die.

Keep people away from Imoen to ensure she doesn't die.

Having done that via a reload of the final save, I've refought the first four battles of the final battle and now contemplate what to do w/ a much improved party (old five + Imoen and Balazaar)


Party:

Ranger/Cleric 20/17
Minsc 26
Jaheria 19/14
Aire 10/17
Imoen 7/23
Anomen 7/33
Balazarr

I did a test run through and did moderately better this time, yet Sendi and such can kill Aire/Jaheria/Imoen very quickly.

I thought I was doing okay and then bang those three died in a blink.

I think one problem is my characters are too low a level.

I will also try haste potions on top of a haste spell. I've never had to do this before and have no idea if the speed will stack.

Oils of speed and Improved Haste WILL stack, Haste and Improved haste won't stack. Too bad.
Using your ability Focus and having Aerie cast Time Stop will give you two characters to use durring the time stop. Have Aerie blast everything she's got at the five while you:
A) Pre buff and get ready to rumble
B) Are pre buffed and go to rumble
C) Rain Death and destruction down on them with your spells.

Also they like to dispell your protections so Spell Imunity Divination will be your friend, also Spell Shield will help. Make sure to max out every ones regeneration capabilitys. As a last resort, try using Imprisonment, not sure if it will kill them but it does go through MR and allows NO save, I have a feeling this won't kill them but you can give it a try. Hope this helps.

ADD] Imoen could cast time stop as well but I would use Aerie because she can rain death and destruction with both spell groups.

[ 04-23-2003, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: untouchable ]

Another cheesy trick is to use Vhailor's helm on your R/C, spawn a simmy, use restoration on it (him) - with spell or use Hindo's Doom (katana) and you have two identical R/C's ! But more importantly - they have the same abilities !

So - have Imoen cast Time stop and just before that you and your simmy should use Focus ability.

So now you will have Imoen, you, your simmy and Balthazar (with his chant he is immune to time stop) all ready to kick ass in the time stop.

I suggest taking out Illasera and Abazigal (use normal weapons !) and also hurt Gromnir pretty badly. Yaga Shura is too tough and Sendai is probably invisible.

But be careful - if you kill someone in the time stop - Melissan will interupt it. So just bring them to near death.

Aerie could use Harm on Yaga Shura - try that combination.
Maybe Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, Harm, kick him, Magic Missile - dead Yaga

What difficulty are you playing ?

That battle is sick, simply put. i just barely got through on like the fifth or sixth time! i always had trouble with Yaga Shura, and Melissan running away to cast heal really annoyed me! but i beat it in the end, so it is beatable [img]smile.gif[/img] .

You have to pick your opponents carefully ...
I'm assuming Balthazar is on your side : Assist Balzaar to ensure he does not die.

Illasera is a pain in the ass,.. she might not seem much but you cant allow her to live. Her special abilities ( magic disruption, knockback sometimes ) and fast fire-rate plus some nice damage make her one of the most dangerous opponents. She doesnt have to walk up to you to hurt you,.. she'll be able to attack the entire time, so she'd better be a priority.

Yaga-shura should be one of your last concerns since he's way too hard too kill. You cant try and kill him while there are 4 others pounding on you.

Sendai should be left alone for a while, let balthazar try and take care of her ( high MR ). Why leave her alone you ask ?
Because you used Vhailor's Helm to create a duplicate of yourself .. so you now have Balthazar and 2 !! you's who can become immune to timestop ( Focus - special ability gained by the fight for a pool ).
None of the five, except Balthazar, have the capability to move around in someone elses timestop. But you have !!3!! running around in Sendai's , which is good.

Optimize this by letting another Party-member cast timestop too, Balthazar might be able to be immune for sometine in the following timestop, and Focus lasts for quite a while too.

So try to take out Illasera first, yaga-shura last.

Though all of this has already been mentioned in older posts.
Dont get me wrong, I dont mind writing it down again, I'm just pretty sure I'm forgetting stuff ( been awhile since I played the final battle ). Anything I had to say in older posts is probably a bit better. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Newayz ... dont hesitate to correct me or ask more specific info. Give your party-members, levels etc. Dont abandon them just yet [img]smile.gif[/img]

Almost forgot: Dont forget to pack your rod of Ressurection !!
Balthazar needs a little help staying alive sometimes, as he tends to charge in. Once dead, he's dead .. but the Rod of Ressurection instantly heals a character if you use it on him -dead or alive-. This is vital for Balthazar's survival [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for your replies, I will give these new tactics a try.

I must mention I cheated. As I had only 5.5 million xp's I used Shadow Keeper to max out.

This made a huge difference as when I first tried this Arie didn't even have a 9th level mage spell.

So w/ many more spells, specail abilities, and hit points, I gave the final battle a second run.

This time I managed to kill 2 of the 5 then Melissan appeared and game over.

So I will Shadow Keeper in the helm and a rod of ressurection and see how it goes.

I tried the time stop trick and didn't do too well. I had Imoen cast brech and pierce magic on Ali, go invisible, and then after time stop expired I tried the back stab. Intrestingly it was Imoen who suffered 80 hp of damage in 2 rounds. Did she feel the need to fall on her own sword? Had I somehow disgraced her? Hmm.

As an observation, I personaly feel this battle is way too much a pain in the butt.

Let me first and last state how awed I am by the quality of this game. The last RPG I really played was the ORIGINAL Wizardy on my Apple II in highschool. The Baulders Gate series has simply been something beyond belief. From the architecure (from actual builings and 'scenes'represented to the game code) to the story line and many diffrent battle constucts (I still love that chess board in durlags tower, grenades away!)I have nothing but the highest admiration for the effort and creativity that went into this project.

But I've been a little let down by ToB. I just feel a little too much was placed on solving difficult battles. Now this obvioulsy stems from my inability to win the final battle. Clearly some people have won this on more difficult battle settings (I always play 'normal') and with fewer characters than I. I am very impressed by this. I think Black Isle really wanted to put a challange out there to the 'best of the best' but in the process they left a few of us middle aged, part timers behind.

Anyway I don't want to grouse because I can't hit the space bar fast enough to keep my characters alive.

So thanks again for the replies and I'll try 'try again'.

if you are having problems keeping up, you can always change your options to pause after every spell or hit or whatnot