Pally Party! (boss fight spoilers)

[Marty4]

I'm level squating again

This isn't as hard as I thought it would be. My guys (all with their shiny new HoF weapons [img]smile.gif[/img] ) can shred through orcs with little trouble, and my cleric of Lathander's spells heal and mass heal are useful. Since he uses greatswords, I can have a 3 man wall of weapons, a combat medic behind them to add a long reach attack on the flanks, and two mages sitting at the back, tossing fireballs, acid storms, icefalls, horid wiltings, haste, emotions, etc.

[Marty4]

Tough enemies call for powerful, new tactics.

Ye olde battle plan:

1. Buffs. Hope, haste, protection from evil, and stone/ironskin on the four warriors. Sometimes I through in a bless, prayer, or other buffs.

2. Form an arrow position.

*(m) *(C)
*(H) *(P)
*(s) *(P)
P= paladin
C= warrior cleric
H= healer cleric
M= mage
S= sorceress

3. Attack
I march this sucker up until I see the first enemy of a group. I use that enemy as the focal point for a delayed blast fireball, horid wilting, and meteor swarm. This inflicts heavy damage on just about all of the enemies present, and the survivors stumble into my 3-man wedge formation and get sliced by hasted Cera Sumat [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] , Golden Heart [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] , and Massive Greataxe of Flame [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] . The middle cleric casts mass heal if needed, and if not either keeps back to do single heals or lends support to the wedge. He also protects the mages, who during a long fight draw Mordenkainan's Swords and shred the enemy.


So far, I have made good progress and am currently in the Horde Fortress, about to take on Guthy. Good luck to me !

[Bozos of Bones]

I thought you finished the game without getting the massive greataxe of flame...
Guthma isn't all that bad, sure, he's a heavy hitter, but he falls quickly when focus-attacked.

[Marty4]

I... er...

OK, I dalekeeped it around the Shaengarne Ford in HoF. I dropped and left a million gold in penance for my sins [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bozos of Bones]

LoL, K, as long as you made your penance [img]tongue.gif[/img]
I'm just doing all the wandering village quests in HoF with that melee party(they're ECL24 now), haven't played in a while as I had a bunch of other games here. Can't wait to get the axe, seems perfect for my barbarian

[Marty4]

How goes your melee party? My sword rush tactic with my paladins really isn't working very well against HoF monsters. I need to cast lots of AoE spells to hold them off. How do you do it with only fighting? Lots of hit 'n run?

[Bozos of Bones]

Well, I place my rogue and my monk in the heart of enemy teritory, hiding. I backstap one dude, and hamstring him, while the monk paralyzes some 4-5 guys. Then the rest of the party(fighter, ranger, barbarian, paladin) waltzes in and starts slaying. I usually send the paladin and the barbarian after the strongest enemy, as the pally has the Smite Evil and the barbarian rages with a Greataxe +4(why are there no good greataxes except the MGoF?). Some fights are hard, on the other hand. Sherincal was easy, but Oria and Lysara were not. Them wolves slew my rogue, monk and ranger, who had under 300 health. Experiencing 9 of them Cone of Cold spells is not my idea of fun [img]tongue.gif[/img] But healing 100 HP with a Lay On Hands, and Raging for an extra 72 HP proved a real lifesaver! Ahh, do I love this game...

[Marty4]

Sounds cool. I may try that, though my next IWD2 game will most likely be an all dreadmaster party (I am SO drunk with power )

Update 1: Guthma
Did the game producers accidently keep him at normal power in HoF? Slaying the horde leader was cake. Guthy's own shamans' webs prevented him from having melee support, and my pallys shredded him.

Update 2: Andora
This was tricky. The initial skirmish on the plateau where Odea originally is was smooth (Dear god, does Wail of the Banshee rock or what?). However, the Andoran rangers in their little caves were more than the usual annoyance, since I couldn't out-arch them and they could easily disrupt spells. I came up with the idea of having Bonegaurds vangaurd the two mages, who cut up the rangers with Mordenkainan Swords. Illium himself fell to a hail of disembodied swords, throwing hammers, crossbows, and sunfires.


Note: Gate is a really fun spell to use. With protection from evil on everyone, I summoned a Gelugon on top of the horde fortress, which took the attention of just about all of the formidable enemies there. I had been having trouble with my guys being surrounded by the huge force, but with a Gelugon in the field I could just sit back, hurl a few AoE spells, and watch the carnage.

[Bozos of Bones]

Guthma is empowered, jut not much, so it doesn't show.
So I take it you're gonna go fight the Battle Squares now, yes? Well, good luck then, as you'll have something to do for the next, oh, three hours... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Marty4]

I've been off the game a lot, so here are 3 updates:

1. Sherincal
Sherry was actually quite on the easy side. I could hold off her minions for a long time while my mages took care of them using AoE spells. I was then able to pepper her full of spells and bolts while she cowardly ran around on the platform, and when she showed her ugly face, my golden heart paladin took her down in a duel (always hit with a critical for 50 damage ). He actually took quite a bit, but lay on hands healed him enough to beat Sherry. Yay, a crappy normal-mode-worthy greatsword. Come on, +1?

2. Caithlin
She was a toughie, but my main fighting paladin has protection from missles on from his kick-assassin shield and rushed the pocket of lethal slingers with not much damage. My party was scattered in this fight, with my CS wielder and warrior-cleric taking on Caithlin and her crew, my mages Mordenkaining (missles and sword) away at the reinforcements, and my hasted medic running around, lending a Heal or a sword to whoever needed it. I was actually losing (me? Never!), when my cleric was able to break away from the fighting long enough to cast Gate. A Gelugen was very helpful in turning the tide, and Caithlin was defeated.

3. Lysara
She sure was tough. I wanted to save the prisoners and took the back entrance, so I couldn't prebuff for the fight. I had to start in the corner in order to get off my buffs. I quickly got off haste and protection from eveil 10 ft radius, then started fighting. I for some reason did not have gate in this fight, so I had to resort to summoning a cacofiend with my mage instead. Weaker fiend, same result. He served as a decoy long enough for enough horrid wilting and fireballs to severely hamper their warriors, then I attacked with my 4 warriors and finished off the stragglers. The downside of this method was that the white abishis were also the victims of my barrage of death. Oh well, they were evil anyway. I actually almost was able to spare the leader (to do the quest), but my fiend attacked him and he went hostile. Of course, this method gave me quite a bit of xp from saving the prisoners, so whos complaining?

I expect Oria to meet a grisly end soon.


EDIT:
If I ever try a paladin game again, I am gonna ditch the secondary fighting paladin, since even with the CS he can't fight nearly as well as the main paladin, and I don't really need a second tank in HoF anyway. I think I'd opt for a second Drow mage-type guy, but lose the rogue level and have him dual wield long swords. While the other three bombardiers are wasting enemies, the main warrior is happy with his Golden Heart and the new drow dude can either join in on the bombing OR cast some buffs, Tenser himself , draw the CS and scimmy of souls, and join in!

[ 01-15-2005, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: Marty4 ]