Strategies for Greater Wolfweres

[bogong]

Most of my group are around Lvl12 and I'm having trouble working out a reliable way to deal with Greater Wolfweres.

After several reloads I've finally overcome some of the bozos by having my Cavalier & Minsc slash away with Aerie, Jaheira & Viconia mainly casting healing spells while Yoshimo shoots arrows.

I suppose I could replace someone with Keldorn to increase the hitting power but is there some exploitable weakness in G.Wolfweres ?

[joetbd]

What is giving you problems? The way they swarm as a pack? Their speed? Or just general how tuff they are?

[bogong]

Their speed and toughness/regeneration.
The cavalier has on Boots of Speed and some gauntlets of weaponskill? but it just seems to be the luck of the roll as to whether the group can take one of the guys down without a fatality in the party.

[joetbd]

My general strategy, and this is what I do here too. Is to have a single fighter be the center of their attacks, and asign a cleric to heal them. And my fighter gets healed faster then the wolfman regenerates. Plus, that leaves my mages and archers free to fire at will.

[Sharpedge]

Yeah, they can be a royal pain. The best thing to do is make sure at least one character (preferably your main character) has a really good AC, say -5 or better. Make sure the Greater Wolfwere is attacking that character, and have everyone in the party hasted. Order everyone in your party to attack the beast and if it turns on them, retreat them from the combat. Instead of using Aeire to heal, have her throw as many of her mage spells (magic missile etc) at the blighter. It also works well if she has a sling and some +2 bullets to fall back on. Should the character with the high AC become injured, have a few potions of extra healing on hand to keep the hit points high.

As far as I am aware, there's no specific weakness to be exploited, you just have to cause as much damage as you can in as short a time as possible.

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Sharpedge: Yeah, they can be a royal pain. The best thing to do is make sure at least one character (preferably your main character) has a really good AC, say -5 or better. Make sure the Greater Wolfwere is attacking that character, and have everyone in the party hasted. Order everyone in your party to attack the beast and if it turns on them, retreat them from the combat. Instead of using Aeire to heal, have her throw as many of her mage spells (magic missile etc) at the blighter. It also works well if she has a sling and some +2 bullets to fall back on. Should the character with the high AC become injured, have a few potions of extra healing on hand to keep the hit points high. As far as I am aware, there's no specific weakness to be exploited, you just have to cause as much damage as you can in as short a time as possible.

I have always hated those buggers, even back in BG1. That's why they are given as an option in the Shapechange (level 9) spell; they are that tough! Sharpedge has a good strategy, but some other pointers:

1. Try to lure them out one at a time. This is difficult (they move quickly), but it will save you a lot of heartache.

2. They never carry anything on them (it is left back where they changed), so feel free to use spells like Disintegrate. These spells only take out one opponent at a time, but one less of these beasts is worth it.

3. Web can work wonders. Those beasts deal out a lot of damage; if they are frozen in their tracks, they can't hit you. This allows you to fire all of your heavy artillery at them from a distance (saving your healing spells for the ones that get through). Other spells that work include confusion, chaos, emotion, etc.; they are still affected by mind-influencing magics.

4. I do believe that fire and acid does not regenerate (I may be wrong on this, but if it follows the pen and paper game, fire and acid damage won't regenerate). Equip your archers with fire or (even better) acid arrows. Memorize spells like Melf's Minute Meteors (they hit like +5 weapons), Fireball (great when you have them Webbed!), Flame Arrow, Melf's Acid Arrow, Agannazar's Scorcher, etc.

5. Most importantly of all, clear the way to them, retreat, then REST AND HEAL before dealing with them. Do not walk in with a half-damaged party; you will not walk out.

Hope this helps!


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Death is only the beginning...

[bogong]

Thanks for the good advice - Aerie has a better range of attacking spells than Viconia or Jaheira so maybe I will just use those two to heal.

I suppose that Wolfweres are sort of like hyped up trolls in a sense; the Flametongue longsword should be a good weapon to use against them. I'll have to pay close attention to fire and acid damage in respect to regeneration.

What about the Bastardsword of Shapeshifters is that a better weapon to use ?

In regard to Disentegrate; will it destroy items like keys and other equipment?

[Gustave]

My party is-Cavalier, Minsc, Nalia, Imoen, Jaheira and Anomen. I would just rush up and beat on them with little to no strategy..heh

Disintergrate occasionally destroys equipment of those that it is used on.

[Eddith]

I find that casting haste on your party and then engaging in melee with these guys is effective - the haste allows your attack/damage rate to remain consistent with their regeneration rate.

Cheers,
Eddith

[Jeannada]

It might be the "too easy" way but i was able to kill all those PLUS the adamantite golem and his friends by using only 2 or 3 summoned pets- fire elementals and aireal servants ( Jaheira and Viconia have these, as does my Cleric of Lavather character), the party took zero damage whereas when i didnt use pets, i could not keep up with the regen on the greater wolfwere. just send a "puller" into the room to initiate the dialog with the wolfweres to make them aggro you. Have the pets next to you as they turn red- i might have minsc throwing Azuredge as a ranged weapon from far back so he doesnt even take damage. Or not.