IWD1 - Dragon's Eye 4 on HoF (from-scratch)

[Cascade]

Wow. How do you even start with this area?

My party's been working HoF from-scratch with hardly a hassle but I've hit a brick wall with the Eldathyn coven.

Party make-up:
Paladin (AC -14 with PoE and War Chant)
Ranger/Cleric (multi)
Fighter/Druid (multi)
Fighter/Mage (multi)
Fighter/Mage/Thief
Bard

I remember how much pain the High Summoner caused me in Normal difficulty, so I've been wondering whether it would be better to begin the fight in the Summoner's chambers - if I stealth the F/M/T, use my bard's 3 lv2 magic slots to cast Invisibility on the fighter/mage, fighter/druid and bard and use Sanctuary on the Ranger/Cleric and Paladin I can render the whole party invisible and begin the fight pretty much wherever; but that summoner's chamber is just so cramped that insta-magic-missile and other spells kill my tank in a split second.

All I can think of is to find a nice clear room, fight from there and clear it bit by bit, usual tactic of big fat web traps and spikes to thin out the monsters; but won't the High Summoner absolutely drown me in (big scary HoF-strength) summons before I can reach him?

[Cascade]

I figured out the problem. 2/3 of the entire damn level was auto-pathing to the first non-invisible character in my roster (Celine l'Saan, my Ranger/Cleric) - whose Sanctuary didn't negate the auto-pathing.

My solution?

Tascha Goldmoon (an disdainful upper-class fighter/mage/thief with an attitude!) shut herself in a room and taunted the snake-worshippers through the door (while presumably barricading it with desks, etc.). While she distracted the bulk of the followers (who bellowed furiously on the other side of the door), the rest of my party slipped past to the High Summoner's chamber and quietly assassinated him.

We then fought a pitched battle outside the door to Tascha's retreat so that we could free her and have her join in the battle.

The whole thing was very tense, because I couldn't save/load until Tascha had been freed! (Trying to load before then resulted in the door automatically springing open and nine kinds of hell descending onto her.)

Finally we swept the rest of the level including the Ritualist and his cronies and the Elite Yuan-Ti in the top-right chamber. Upon opening a locked door, a group of adventurers rushed us in the mistaken impression we were snake-worshippers. We had to defend ourselves, naturally. What a nice sword that is. All of that done, we retreated back to DE3 for a well-earned rest.

[Aerich]

It is a tough level when doing HoF from scratch. Arguably harder than lvl 5 of DE and Burial Isle, because you can't rest.

What has worked for me in the past is the following:
Fort up in the library and kill the librarian, doorkeeper, and the first wave. Go toward the summoner and kill the yuan-ti mages that spawn. Then proceed to take out the summoner, and then head back to DE3 to rest before clearing the rest of the level (you should have a clear path back to the entrance). It is difficult, and you have to preserve your spells.

Typically, I use a lot of AoE and inhibitors in the first fight with as few summons as I can, a couple of AoE and single-target damagers in the second with more summons (Spike Growth is great for disrupting the mages), and whatever I have left in the third.

[Kyrvias]

I went through that level by freeing the adventurers first- I must say, their help was invaluable, and greatly appreciated. Plus, my conscious wouldn't let me kill adventurers in the same boat as myself.

[Aerich]

You don't have to kill the adventurers even if you clear the level on your own. If there's no enemies to fight on the level and you don't attack them (or get them to fight you with dialogue), all they do is offer to give you a safe place to rest.