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Drawde1 · 09-27-2001, 01:19 PM

I don't know if anyone agrees with me about this, but I've been finding that most of the battles in the ToB add-on, especially the "boss" battles, are extremely frustrating, not only very hard but also not much fun. Most of the time you are swamped with hordes of enemies (fire giants, bone blades, drow, slayer shadows, etc. depending on the battle) which have incredibly low THAC0 and AC plus a huge number of attacks per round, and often regenerate themselves when you kill them (bone blades and slayer shadows particularly) which means that all your characters, regardless of how many protective/enhancement spells or abilities they've cast, and how many ultra-powerful magical suits of armour and trinkets they have, get hit constantly, disrupting their spells/abilities and making it impossible to use any real strategy other than hacking away at the enemy, drinking healing potions as fast as you can, and occasionally using an area-of-effect spell like Horrid Wilting or Holy Smite. (And I've tried casting every single enhancement/protection spell plus abilities like Hardiness/Whirlwind Attack before the battles, plus summoning devas, elementals, golems etc, it still ends up the same chaotic melee scrum). In some battles you can position your characters strategically, allowing your spellcasters to stay out of things, but more often, your characters all get placed near the enemy in a cutscene (as with the Melissan battles in the Throne of Bhaal).
As I say, the main annoying thing is that you get hordes of (often regenerating) enemies with both a very low THAC0 (i.e they hit the most well-armoured fighter with every attack) and several attacks per round, whilst you can at best cast one spell, use one ability, drink one potion etc. per round.
I know that a fighter-heavy party (I have only one real "tank", a paladin) might have more success due to also having high HPs and attacks per round, but it seems a bit unfair to a more magic-oriented party! My paladin with an AC of -10, wielding the upgraded Purifier or the Answerer, and with Hardiness and Greater Whirlwind activated, still gets demolished, as do devas, elementals etc.
I have managed to fight my way through ToB, though I'm stuck on the third Melissan battle (having exhausted most of my protective and summoning spells), but I've found most of the battles very annoying.
It's odd that many reviews mention that having to fight lots of spellcasters with powerful protective spells was an annoying aspect of ToB, but I never have much problems with fighting other casters, it's the fighters that are the problem!

09-27-2001, 01:19 PM	#1
Drawde1 The Magister Join Date: May 25, 2001 Location: Cookham,Berkshire,UK Posts: 104	I don't know if anyone agrees with me about this, but I've been finding that most of the battles in the ToB add-on, especially the "boss" battles, are extremely frustrating, not only very hard but also not much fun. Most of the time you are swamped with hordes of enemies (fire giants, bone blades, drow, slayer shadows, etc. depending on the battle) which have incredibly low THAC0 and AC plus a huge number of attacks per round, and often regenerate themselves when you kill them (bone blades and slayer shadows particularly) which means that all your characters, regardless of how many protective/enhancement spells or abilities they've cast, and how many ultra-powerful magical suits of armour and trinkets they have, get hit constantly, disrupting their spells/abilities and making it impossible to use any real strategy other than hacking away at the enemy, drinking healing potions as fast as you can, and occasionally using an area-of-effect spell like Horrid Wilting or Holy Smite. (And I've tried casting every single enhancement/protection spell plus abilities like Hardiness/Whirlwind Attack before the battles, plus summoning devas, elementals, golems etc, it still ends up the same chaotic melee scrum). In some battles you can position your characters strategically, allowing your spellcasters to stay out of things, but more often, your characters all get placed near the enemy in a cutscene (as with the Melissan battles in the Throne of Bhaal). As I say, the main annoying thing is that you get hordes of (often regenerating) enemies with both a very low THAC0 (i.e they hit the most well-armoured fighter with every attack) and several attacks per round, whilst you can at best cast one spell, use one ability, drink one potion etc. per round. I know that a fighter-heavy party (I have only one real "tank", a paladin) might have more success due to also having high HPs and attacks per round, but it seems a bit unfair to a more magic-oriented party! My paladin with an AC of -10, wielding the upgraded Purifier or the Answerer, and with Hardiness and Greater Whirlwind activated, still gets demolished, as do devas, elementals etc. I have managed to fight my way through ToB, though I'm stuck on the third Melissan battle (having exhausted most of my protective and summoning spells), but I've found most of the battles very annoying. It's odd that many reviews mention that having to fight lots of spellcasters with powerful protective spells was an annoying aspect of ToB, but I never have much problems with fighting other casters, it's the fighters that are the problem!