Unfair Tricks....

[Roboghost]

...And for the creeps that like to call their friends for help;
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The Mage and Druid can teach them a terrible lesson. Have a Thief scout 'em out and the place the two at the edge--then toss some Entangle and Web spells at 'em--follow up with multiple (Druids') Spike Growth spells as fast as he/she can cast 'em. When done, just back them off and protect them from the lucky monsters that manage to escape your nasty surprise. Also, for the monsters that DON'T hunt you--Spike Growth softens up the bad guys in a serious fashion.
Finally, the Mage spells Greater Malison and Lower Resistance can make these kind of tricks even more deadly.

[Roboghost]

Tricks to surviving HoF from very start spoiler:
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Fire Beetles: "Missile Kill" --anyone that can toss something; don't engage in Close Combat.

Wolves (fish shack/outside Ogre cave): "Charm Animal" --need Ranger or Druid--the Wolf will just leave the fish shack and the Wolves outside Easthaven will beat the crap out of each other while you toss spells and missiles at 'em.

Goblins: "Shadow [Missile] Kill" --need Ranger or Thief to approach to keep Goblin in shadow (this is what they are all about...right?).

Ogre Cave: "Battle, Sleep, Repeat" --have to rest often (even running to sleep and finish the same battle...so it takes you several game days, big deal).

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by Roboghost: Fire Beetles: "Missile Kill" --anyone that can toss something; don't engage in Close Combat.

Actually... Two-Handed Weapons work just as well. Hey! What do you know? You start off with Quarterstaffs! Proceed to poke them all to death... ...

WARNING! As Level 1 Characters, you can only strike them on a Critical Hit. Get your favourite magazine ready.

Wolves (fish shack/outside Ogre cave): "Charm Animal" --need Ranger or Druid--the Wolf will just leave the fish shack and the Wolves outside Easthaven will beat the crap out of each other while you toss spells and missiles at 'em.

Nah... it is only one Wolf versus 6 Adventurers. Nothing a massive bombardment of Magical Stones, Sunscorch, Chromatic Orbs, Holy Smite, etc... won't kill.

Goblins: "Shadow [Missile] Kill" --need Ranger or Thief to approach to keep Goblin in shadow (this is what they are all about...right?).

Neat trick! Provided your Ranger or Thief does not fail their roundly Stealth checks of course. My tactic has always been to lure them out one by one, beat the snot out of the lone goblin, rest in the inn and repeat.

Ogre Cave: "Battle, Sleep, Repeat" --have to rest often (even running to sleep and finish the same battle...so it takes you several game days, big deal).

Eeee-yup, exact same "tactic" I use.

"AHHHH!"

Party rushes in and fires as much firepower as possible.

~insert name~ got whacked by Ogre. 40 damage.

"AHHHH!"

Party rushes out and rest.

[Lord Brass]

Well for "fromage" tactics, one should be aware that the static charge whilst invisible ploy will not hit creatures that have a dialogue response to engage you with. Your character will notice them because of the blue ring around against all other creature's red ones.

You all know this, so why am I pointing it out? The reason is that static charge is a little...how do you say...rubbish in terms of what creature is affected by the spell. I've sat and watched several (mulitple) charges go to waste, as some undead git wants to talk to you and thus, is not affected. (I watched it to see whether the spell would move on to another target. It doesn't.)

[Dundee Slaytern]

Move the character around to switch to a new target. Using 4-5 Static Charges, my Fighter/Druid cleared out the Vale of the Shadows( last level) and the Temple of the Forgotten Gods.

[Lord Brass]

I've done that myself Dundee!

The easiest time I've had of it was with an Elven F/M/T on solo. Almost the entire host of undead in VoS (and DE) didn't notice me at all, so I could walk around and smack them on the back of the head! This has never happened since, so I'm not sure what condition made that possible. It didn't work with all things, but the undead didn't notice me.

[NobleNick]

(minor spoiler)
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Here's a few I just stumbled upon in Gloomfrost (HoW):

After battling your way through the ice caves to the dwarven smith, you enter another area of ice caves guarded largely by Ice Golems. I used my thief to scout out the territory ahead, got carried away and eventually made it all the way through to the area-ending dialogue and back to Lonelywood without a fight!

Of course, with Ice Golems going down at 14,000 expo apiece, you lose over 300,000 points of easy experience this way; and there is a quite valuable piece of gear in this area that can only be obtained through combat. So I went back to my save at the smith's shop and re-did the area using the tried and true hack-n-slash technique... and leveled up just about every character in the party. Which brings me to my next cheesy trick...

After clearing a wide area next to THE ice pit (not a worm hole) in the lower ice caves, sleep on the narrow path between the pit and the cliff. You will likely be awakened by a group of ice golems, BUT one of them will likely be caught in the pit. Use hit and run tactics, focusing missile fire in one of the free golems til he goes down, then do the other. (Or, if you have a power party, with 3-4 well-armed melee specialists, just wade in and chop them to bits.) Finally, focus missile fire on the hapless creature stuck in the pit. Bingo, for a group of 3 Ice Golems, that's 42,000 of honest (abeit cheesy) expo in 2-3 minutes of gameplay, with no spells used. This is especially sweet with a Bard in the party, since she can finish healing the party while they are finishing off the last critter in the pit. Rinse and repeat as desired. Heh, heh, heh, my Bard is now at level 20...

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!

[ashsays]

This may have been written already but ... Have your mage use Otilukes sphere on one of your own guys. First send one of your guys into the middle of the enemy. Next cast Otilukes sphere on him. All the bad guys will still try to attack this one character. Then cast all your area effect spells. Some of the druid ones are most effective.( Stone spike , thorn.. and mages fireball, cloudkill etc) Your character will be sitting pretty in the middle of all the carnage. Happy hunting!

[NobleNick]

This one borrowed from kroma, (See his post "im walkin' on lava... yeah yeah yeah")

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(minor Dorn's spoiler coming)

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Dimension Door out onto the lava in the room with the fire giants. They can't walk on the lava to get to you; so you should be able to pummel them with magic and missiles with total impunity.

What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!


[ 10-14-2003, 09:58 AM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[Ar-Cunin]

Sanctuary (lvl 1 cleric spell)

move your cleric forward until the monster(s) see you - cast Sanctuary - the monster(s) will stand around for x rounds while the remaining partymembers hit it/them with missile weapons.

(this works especially well in doorways as monsters comming out of the shadows after the fight begins sometimes ignores the cleric)