last battles (slight spoil)

hmm... was pretty disappointed with the last 2 battles actually... since they're rather easy to kill... was wondering if there're other methods that kill the idiots even faster?

here's mine:

at first i thought that it would be necessary to summon cannon fodder and stuff, but all it took was preparatory spells and some potions...

pomab: cast [defensive harmony], [recitation], [resist electricity], [haste] and chase pomab and his images around

belhifet: cast [haste], make everyone invisible; make 3 of my fighters drink potions of heroism and str 24
at the start, belhifet won't dispell magic on the party; then he'll attack the ?first? character; then un-invisible-ise someone (not first char); get him far away, and let the iron golems breathe on him, (meanwhile the first guy will get attacked somewhat) then get the whole party to attack belhifet... he died pretty fast...

oh yeah... my party consists of paladin, fighter->conjurer, ranger->cleric, bard, mage/cleric, mage/thief... so all of them weren't very high level or anything...

[Leafy]

you think it was easy? my first party was a Cleric.Ranger, a Paladin and a Thief/Mage.
My second party was solely a Cleric/Ranger.

Belhifet and Pomab are not so "easy" really. I suppose if you cheat and give yourself unlimited potions, it's probably easier. For Pomab, electrical resistance is a must (there's a spell and a potion). Then the key is to stay AWAY fropm those crystal golems. They seem to attack one character; use that character to run decoy in big circles around the room. Fighters, kill Pomab.
As for Belhifet; I discovered the vital defences with the one membered party. Fire resistance is very important. Next, it's good to have Free Action to avoid being held and beaten to bits. Also, Belhifet likes to cast improved invisibility, so Invisibility Purge him if he looks transeparent (it'll make you hit him more often... and do more damage?)
Belhifet's "pattern" seems to dispel your affects, cast symbol of pain (which can be easily dispelled by a trap) and then 2 stinking clouds followed by Firestorms, Flame Shroud, summomn shadows and invisibility.
Oh yeah, and kill the golems first!

>you think it was easy? my first party was a Cleric.Ranger, a Paladin and a Thief/Mage.
My second party was solely a Cleric/Ranger.

okay... i had a big party, so it was easier... that is definitely true...

>Belhifet and Pomab are not so "easy" really. I suppose if you cheat and give yourself unlimited potions, it's probably easier.

but i didn't... and they were easy in the sense that not too much planning was needed to kill them... just basically preparation and charging...

>For Pomab, electrical resistance is a must (there's a spell and a potion). Then the key is to stay AWAY fropm those crystal golems. They seem to attack one character; use that character to run decoy in big circles around the room. Fighters, kill Pomab.

well, i didn't even do that... everyone was attacking the false pomabs... and yes... i agree that electrical resistance is terribly useful in the battle...

>As for Belhifet; I discovered the vital defences with the one membered party. Fire resistance is very important. Next, it's good to have Free Action to avoid being held and beaten to bits. Also, Belhifet likes to cast improved invisibility, so Invisibility Purge him if he looks transeparent (it'll make you hit him more often... and do more damage?) Belhifet's "pattern" seems to dispel your affects, cast symbol of pain (which can be easily dispelled by a trap) and then 2 stinking clouds followed by Firestorms, Flame Shroud, summomn shadows and invisibility.
Oh yeah, and kill the golems first!

i guess for a lesser member party it takes more planning... but the point is that i was really expecting the battle to be much more difficult than i experienced, so the end result was that i was terribly disappointed... for eg, in the pomab battle all i did was have 1 person quaff 2 potions of healing, and in the bel battle i didn't do anything except lure the iron golems out... no one needed healing (although some were seriously injured when he died).. and no one died in both battles... _quite_ disappointing... no need to use most of the potions i had hoarded from the start of the game (used 3xpotion of ??? giant strength, 3xpotion of heroism, 1xpotion of invisibility), no need to use musical instruments, no need even to cast spells in battle... what's this???

anyway, i found the yxunomei battle more difficult... it's impossible at that stage to go pure melee with her and survive... she's has just too many attacks... belhifet, on the other hand, does great damage per hit and hits most of the time, but he's just too slow at it...

btw, bel doesn't dispel your effects if everyone is invisible, even tho he can see u... he casts dispel magic on himself, then straightaway casts the symbol of pain... and he didn't even get down to casting flame shroud b4 he died... let alone summon shadows...

and basically the golems didn't do much because for some reason, they don't think of casting cloud kill again on the party after they cast it once on a pathetic member who's outside the main group... or at least they don't think of casting it b4 bel dies...


on another note tho, do the items that say "1 use per day" actually recharge after 1 day? it seemed as if i could only use my bag of holding 1ce...

[Wrath]

A common misconception is that the more members you have in your party, the easier it is. In my experience, this isn't true. I've taken several 6-member parties though, and found it much harder than my solo trip, or my 3-man party I just finished (Paladin, Druid, Bard). Yes, you have less characters, but they are all a higher level, with better HPs, spells, items, saving throws, THAC0, etc. In fact, the easiest trip I had was my solo one (also a Ranger/Cleric BTW). He was just so powerful on his own that nothing could touch him. In fact, Pomab, the Idol, and Belhifet were all easier to him than that bugger Malavon

A tip with the Iron Golems is to have your Mage or Bard (whichever is the weakest, the Iron Golems ALWAYS go after that person) cast Mirror Image/Stoneskin. They'll waste their time on them while your Fighters pummel them golems to shreds. Of course, wait until they both cast their Poisonous Gas (Cloudkill) before trying this. BTW, they only have one Cloudkill, that's why you didn't see them using it a lot As long as you have your Fighters Protected from Fire, and know where the traps are, the final battle is a piece of cake. I think they should have given Belhifet more spells like Symbol of Hopelessness, Power Words, Monster Summoning 7, etc., it might have made him more deadly.

Finally, with the 1-per-day items you mentioned, you need to re-equip the Bag in your quick slots. It's a bug with all of those sorts of items, my Bard had to do that with all of his instruments

-Wrath