AAAhhhhggg!! Help with last battle & bard

I've made it to what I believe to be the last battle (some kind of fire
demon and (2) Iron Golems) ? And absolutely cannot get past! Everybody
dies no matter how I try to attack, between getting fried, smoked,
sliced-n-diced and zapped by traps, I cannot seem to beat these guys without
cheating (which I don't want to do). I'm using a Ranger, Paladin, Bard,
Thief, Cleric and Mage. The Thief and Bard are usually the first to go,
with the cleric feverishly trying to cast heal spells on everybody and the
mage doing basically no damage with ANY kind of spell to ANYBODY. Any help?

Also, why can't my Bard cast the spells he's memorized? What am I doing wrong??!!

[Fljotsdale]

Hi, Imp, and

WELCOME!

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Last question first: have you put armour on your bard? s/he cannot cast spells while wearing most armour. Only armour a Bard can use and still cast spells is Elven or (I forget its name - something like Melodic chain).


For the rest: Don't cast protective spells before you go through the mirror to meet him, nor drink potions. He wipes out all magic effects when he transforms into a demon. CAST 'em, drink potions, as soon as you can afterwards.
Have as many summoning spells ready as you can, and keep summoning more monsters, etc as soon as he kills the previous lot. Use the best weapons, naturally, and keep whacking him when he gets close to you. DON'T go chasing him over the central floor area, 'cos you can't disarm the traps and you keep getting blasted. Stay on the path round the edge. WATCH him while you are whacking him. AS SOON as he starts to call down flame on himself to heal himself, run away! It will damage you. When he throws that nasty lava-fire at you, RUN out of the area FAST. Make sure you are hasted. Do not stay in one place. Let him come to you.
Finally, if this still doesn't work, lower the difficulty to easy! It still isn't, but it is less impossible!
Hope this helps
Kill the golems first. They are fairly easy and he doesn't have any more.

PS. DON'T use fire on him!
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[This message has been edited by Fljotsdale (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Lord of Alcohol]

and still kiss the bard goodbye.....

[Cloudbringer]

Not necessarily, LoA!

I would recommend using your bard's spells up and then switchhing to armor and bardsong when all is gone. I finished back in December and can't recall exactly what happened when and with whom. I guess "keep moving" is a pretty good bit of advice, too! LOL

Good luck!

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Raindancer of the Laughing Hyenas Clan
Storm-Queen
StormCloud of the Black Knight
Heart Mind Soul Forever

[This message has been edited by Cloudbringer (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Balgin]

If you have the warhammer that is something like +1/+5 vs Golems give it to any single fighter, it makes realy short work of the Golems. Yes, I've noticed that the IWD and BG2 monsters have inferior AI to the vindictive, omnipotent BG ones. They will quite happily target a character and chase them ignoring the rest of you. The demon is harder to lure but if you can lure him, do it.

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Balgin, the Dwarf

[Balgin]

Oh, and that Ranger of you'rs had better be a second frontline fight because you'll need two of them. I think the designers seem to have remembered hat 1st Edition demons took full damage from magic missiles (the spell that is) as oposed to half from acid, a quarter from something else etc. His resistances are high so concentrate on casting defensive spells on you're party and hitting him. You can save the bard and magic user (magic users should rarely stand still, especially in this encounter). If you can give that thief a bow, s/he'll last longer that way.

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Balgin, the Dwarf

[JR Jansen]

SPOILER


A way to save your magic users. Cast stone skin as soon as the demon changed (use scrolls if need be). You just bought some time for your magic users. Then cast Tensar's transformation. Your fighters should have taken care of the golems by then. Let them swig potions of .....giant strength (or let your cleric cast strength of one) and oil of speed (so that your mage does not have to cast haste). Now you have your fighters and your mage (b/c of the transformation) to swing away in melee at the demon, your thief putting arrows in him and your cleric healing constantly.

JR

Nunc ut nunquam

[kopema]

I hate to bust your bubble there pal, but as far as I'm concerned saving and restarting ten times in a row to fight one battle is just as much "cheating" as is using a character editor.

When I play a "good" strategy/roleplaying game and die and have to restart, I like to think: "darn, I screwed up, I should have known to do more scouting or be more agressive, etc. ahead of time from that clue I got earlier in the game." When I have to save and restart multiple times on one battle, and I can't see, even after the fact, how I could possibly have known what to do the first time through, I do not consider that a good strategy game. And if anyone thinks that roleplaying repeatedly dieing is fun, then some serious professional help is probably in order.

I've read all the posts here, and I am still sure that if I read every spoiler ever written, build the best powergamer characters possible from the very start geared just to win this one battle, have all the right anti-golem (as opposed to anti-spider, anti-undead, anti-giant, anti-etc.) weapons, exactly the right armor and every situation-specific spell memorized, then take all the potions and cast in the exact right order, and run in a counter-clockwise spiral to avoid all the traps I know out about ahead of time, etc., etc., etc. . . . I will probably still have to save and re-start several times.

I understand that making a game like this challenging without being frustrating is very hard to do, but if game designers can't make it so you can't win without doing all of the above, and more, then I wish they would just give up and make a character editor part of the game.

[Fljotsdale]

Kopema? First off -

WELCOME!

Next:

I agree with every word you say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[This message has been edited by Fljotsdale (edited 06-03-2001).]

[Gaelic]

All I did was stoneskin my mage, have him drink oil of speed and run around with the golems. Then, the rest of the party went nuts attacking the boss. It was close but we all made it.



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Gaelic