Darkest Day, Tactics, Ascension etc...

[Dave_the_quack]

Thanks for the heads up guys!! I have a feeling that life is going to get a little bit harder very soon.. i think I've just seen some little guys with funny names running in CI. Crap.

Heh.

[Gherbod]

I have noticed this... and I had to restart the game. I had my PC as a sorceror and he was getting killed every time I was rudely awakened from slumber. The enemies would target him mercilously.

BTW, I am loving these mods... if you have not tried these you should!!

So last night I restarted... here is my team. (I decided that the difficulty of the challenge required a fully created party imported from multiplayer. Sorry Jaheira, Misc, Imoen...)

I did min/max stats but didn't spent all night trying for and 1100) or anything like that. Also I didn't put together the perfect party by any means but in part just some kits I wanted to try or kits that seemed to fit a portrait I wanted to use.

Monk (is the player character) (fists of fury baby!)
Paladin: Undead Hunter (crossbow, 2H sword)
Fighter: Elf Bladesinger (seems like a fighter/mage kit) with Katana
Fighter: Wizard Hunter (2 weapon style w/ daggers, shortsword)
Cleric: Warlock (once you go evil you never go back!)
Sorceror

Actually I made the monk the player character because he can run away faster.

So I like some of the new spells but I am missing some of the old standby spells. What happened to my web!? Also, there is a 4th level cleric spell that is an AoE disease damage over time spell and I am loving it. Actually seems like there are a lot of cleric spell additions that could be useful but many I have not yet tried.

SPOILER SPACE






I am have fought my way through the first few rooms and activated the sewage golem. I am having a ton of trouble with the Duergar wizards... they go down hard and few of my characters have a magic weapon and they are resistant to magic. They are not easy for me to kill at this point. Also, their spell "Confusion" is extremely effective against my ppl at this time. It often leads to tragedy and restarts. I do not have a defense for this spell at this time.

I keep wanting to rest to get my spells back but it may just be that pushing foward with careful combat strategy (and without rest) would be more effective for me. I love the bugbears... I was like "why aren't these hobgoblins dying faster?"

Thanks for the encouragement folks!!

- Gherbod

Originally Posted by Dundee Slaytern It's been a while since I touched the game, but from what I know of the mods... just remember the following rule of thumb. In over 90% of the mods, the AI is coded in such a way that it will aim at your PC at all cost, even if it kills them. Happy gaming.

[Gherbod]

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Ok I will admit that I am having a LOT of trouble. I have encountered Ilyich and his crew and I am simply struggling to take them out. In fact I am having to restart with my third party... just to try to get the pieces in place to be able to survive. My first party was not able to deal with foes kamikaze strikes against the weaker members. My second party (5 fighters and a bard "Chronicler") did not have any chance at all against the Glabrezu because we had no weapons that would hurt it. Yesterday I broke down and shadowkeeped a few +2 weapons into my all fighter party so that I could at least have a chance... and amd now reconsidering this move because I realize that with the right spells I would have the chance to harm him.

Any suggestions for a party makeup that can handle Darkest Day with Tactics? Right now I am thinking that I will have to have a couple of fighter types and several multi-class types so that I can have some spells but on characters with enough HP to survive.

I am loving the challenge of this but right now I am not up to the challenge... need some advice.

- Gherbod

[Kyrvias]

Some friendly advice: don't resort to shadowkeeper to make the game easier.

And generally speaking, spell strategy is always fun. For example, Web + Spider Spawn. The spiders are immune to the web, and generally poison, and then take out, anything that's bolted to the floor.

Furthermore, direct-damage spells are your enemy, in most cases. You know how Confusion is so useful against your party? It'll be useful against the enemies as well, once a greater malison is lowered upon them.

I'll think of some more advice when it comes to me.

[Gherbod]

Thanks!! I will keep at it. I did get lucky and manage to kill of some of the baddies. I think I will have a breakthrough soon. Actually I realized that I don't have to go through the library immediately... so I am going to go through some of the rest of the "Chateau" and hunt for some better gear and then come back and clean up.

For some reason I do not have access to the spell "web". I am guessing that it was removed by Darkest Day. I am for sure really missing that spell!!

-Gherbod

[Dave_the_quack]

Ok.. I'm not extremely tactical, but I've decided that I might use hit and run tactics on Illyich and co. Question, though. Am I kidding myself if I think I can 'trick' the crew into using their expendable potions, etc, run away and lose the target, rest and repeat? I don't want to be killing myself doing this if potions etc regenerate whilst I rest...

[Gherbod]

SPOILERS!!!









Dave,

I have not been posting in this thread for a while because it took me a long time to have success in CI. However I have now beaten Ilyich and crew a few times and to address your question... I am not sure if the potion are used up but I think so. In my experiences to date I think that the critical component in my success was devising an extremely quick and effective strategy for downing the mage of the Duergar combat teams so that I can rest and recover from fights... rather than rest and end up in worse shape. For me this involves magic missiles from Imoen and a low level "flash" or "scorch" or something spell from Jaheira... does a few HP damage with a chance to blind. My main character usually then runs laps while the party pelts my Duergar pursuers with missile weapons. Oh that and the old "rest and run" technique which sometimes means I can fight these crews piecemeal rather than all at once. For Ilyich's crew I also adopt a "piecemeal" strategy... I try to lure them out one at a time for combat. Also, Jaheira has an area of effect disease spell (level 4) which got me a few easy kills. (It is a new spell I think a part of Darkest Day but maybe it came from Tactics mod.)

Good luck Dave... please post your successes and failures as you escape CI. I went into the sewers on a search for Keldorn and got eviscerated by a battle that I did not expect... so keep your guard up.

I am really enjoying the game so far. The advice I was given not to use shadowkeeper was very very good advice and I am sticking with that. My current party has a bard as main character... interesting so far... am still trying to put together a good party though.

- Gherbod

I

[Dave_the_quack]

Well... I FINALLY got past them guys. I decided I really didn't like my party make-up, so I switched things up. I think I tried to take on too much too quickly, too - I've only ever played normal difficulty, so the switch to hard difficulty + tactics was a bit of a learning curve. Anyway, I ended up moving to core rules and created a new (albeit a little bit powerful) party.

Necromancer/cleric (PC)
Assassin/mage
Swashbuckler (to be dualled to fighter at level 15)
Totemic Druid (with the option to dual to fighter if i want to)

Three things got me through this - summons (mainly the two spirit animals - immunity to normal weapons always helps), traps (two trap setters = death!) and domination for Karamazov/Ilyich.

It took me ages. I think that this can only be a good thing for me. I'm looking forward to progressing further and having to use my brain. Thanks for all the advice on getting past here guys!

Davo

[Gherbod]

Sounds like a fun group. Did you dual from assasin to mage?

On my most recent venture through Chateau Irenicus I got lucky. I left a spider in the library to distract the baddies while I ran and a very nasty summons by Rasputin (whose name rhymes with Bark Playsguitar) called down some massive AoE damage on that poor spider and ended up killing a few communist Duergar including Ilyich. Made my life much much easier. I don't know if you can call that a strategy though.

- Gherbod

[Dave_the_quack]

Nope... Shadowkeeper is my friend. I have a multi necro/cleric and a multi assassin/mage.

Assassin/mage is definately my favourite so far.. it seems I favour the thief classes. I've changed the difficulty back up to hard, too - was finding it a bit too easy. Then I hit Improved Maevar. Lordy.