Rapax Castle

[Gab]

The Rapax Castle is a living hell for me!! Everywhere I go there's hordes of Rapax I have to fight. There's usually way too many Rapax for me to fight! I've
just encountered: 10 Rapax Beserkers, 12 Rapax Warlocks, 8 Rapax Samuri, 12 Rapax Veterans, 10 Archers and 3 Bowmen!!! I can't even get to the upstairs where I need to become a templar. And worst of all, more Rapax keep apearing every where. Help!!!

[ChaosTheorist]

1) Keep X-Ray up so you can track them, and use the (few) dead-end doorways to keep the number you have to face at any one time under control. The stairway "landing" room in the SW corner is one good place. Or stand back-to-back with Ferro, and take them as they come into his shop; don't forget to heal him as needed.
2) Drop the Difficulty setting; it will make the existing Rapax easier to kill, and (slightly) reduce the number that appear at respawn time.
3) Go somewhere else for a couple of levels.
4) There is no 4; three is the number thou shalt count, and the number of thy counting shall be three.
5) Is right out.

[Vaprakgruumsh]

What level are your characters in Rapax?
They should be fairly high. Also what classes do you have?

[Gab]

My party is level 17 and 18. I have manged to beat some Rapax encounters. But near the stairs I get swarmed by around 45 Rapax! When i go somewhere else I just keep getting attacked by more Rapax! Information on my party classes are in
another post of mine called Trynton.

[jsalsb]

Actually, I'd stay away from Ferro while fighting the hoards. You'll just have to waste energy on keeping him buffed, unless you don't care if he dies (he ties for the best shops on the whole planet!).

I'd go with the stated excelent suggestion of lowering the difficulty level, at least until you become a templar; use Freeze All liberally (works great on the goat-heads... uh, Rapax); try to keep haste going; and if all else fails, RUN towards the templar area.

[ChaosTheorist]

Actually, I'd stay away from Ferro while fighting the hoards. You'll just have to waste energy on keeping him buffed, unless you don't care if he dies (he ties for the best shops on the whole planet!).

Let Ferro die? Obviously not! But I haven't had any problem--or had to expend what felt like unnecessary SP--keeping him alive.

However, using him as a "living wall" does change the typical combat setup a bit:
1) Stand to the West of Ferro--the side toward the forge and elevator.
2) Cast the out-of-combat buff/prot spells--Armorplate, Missile Shield, Magic Screen, & Enchanted Blade--after you're in position. There's no incremental cost here, since these are all spells I'd cast anyway; I just cast them where Ferro can receive the benefit.
3) Use X-Ray to track the Rapax parties.
4) As the Rapax start to come into Ferro's shop through either the East or West door, drop an Acid Bomb, Draining Cloud, or Fireball on them.

Typically, 1 or 2 will come in the East door (Ferro's side) and 3-5 will come in the West door (my side). Since Ferro has over 400 HP, and only 1 melee attacker at a time can get at him, he doesn't take damage very fast. The usual healing/in-combat-protection spells I use anyway (Heal All, Rest All, Element Shield) automatically extend to him--again, there's no extra cost. And, unlike a dead-end doorway, he can hit back!

The only extra cost would be if you wanted to cast Superman, Razor Cloak, Body of Stone or the like on Ferro to increase his damage output or improve his individual protection; I usually don't bother. IOW, I use him as a wall rather than as a full-up team member, and his ability to hit back is a bonus.

A benefit of having my back covered is that I can rearrange the party formation if I want to give some hack'n'slash practice to classes like Ranger, Gadgeteer, Bard, or Ninja that typically aren't front-line fighters, without worrying about the caster types in the center being unprotected from the now-empty rear quadrant.

WRT "ties for the best shops": who's the other one? Bela has a few good items, but nowhere near Ferro's inventory. I make it a point to have enough cash to buy CMCs for everyone, plus a selection of his Ankhs, when I meet Bela, but rarely deal with him after that.

[Sir_Toejam]

Don't forget: you can use summons to block entryways; used the canned varieties if you want level 6 elementals, as you can't seem to place anything over level 3 in the hallways with the spell version. I usually stand just to the south of ferro, summon an elemental behind me to block that gate, then face the rapax as they come around the corner. Chameleon really helps too, as you can get much closer to them, or even let large groups walk on by. Also, eye-for-eye is usefull (spell or potion) as the raps will usually end up freezing themselves by casting the freeze-all spell.

You will find that if the rapax do not have a direct path to you, they will not usually attempt to attack from that direction, so they won't even try to come from the direction you placed your elemental blocker in. also, this seems to keep ferro from doing anyting but defending, and keeps him out of combat most times. in contrast to what others here have said, I find him to be quite fragile and will often be done-in by one or two samurai.

Level 17-18 is plenty high enough to deal with rapax; i was taking them out easily at level 12-13.