Survival Guide for a HoF-from-scratch party (spoilers)

[Aerich]

I thought it would be helpful to have a little guidebook of survival strategies for this very tough enterprise.

To summarize some tips from other threads and my personal experience of HoF:

1) Your friends are damage resistance and summons
2) Status effect spells are far more useful than pure damagers
3) Melee is the option of last resort; alternately, it is the easiest and "cheapest" way to take down weakened or helpless targets

[ 01-12-2006, 02:58 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Aerich]

Getting down to specifics, based on my experience of what works in the HoF from scratch game I just started...

Wolf in Apsel's shop: run around the table with one character while the others cram into a corner to avoid being targeted and shoot a barrage. For about a hundred rounds. Alternately - blind it with a Sunscorch; a blinded NPC will stand still and not attack if attacked only by missile weapons, and takes an AC penalty besides.

Goblins outside of town: try to draw a few at a time, preferably less than 3. What worked for me was to draw one, which in turn drew a couple friends, and retreat across the bridge. The decoy runs around while the others shoot. Beneficial spells are bless, sunscorch, entangle (in case you draw more than you want), charm person.

Wolves outside of town: I haven't done this one yet, but a ranger's charm animal might be very helpful. Sunscorch and a level 4 or better Chromatic Orb could make it much less painful.

Orcs at cave entrance: could be tough. If using a single-classed cleric, you might have animate dead. If not, a hold person or charm person might be available. One tank with the best possible armour and protections might survive for a little while. Entry, quick exit for spell reloading, and re-entry could be the name of the game here.

[ister]

I haven't tried this, so I'm asking out of pure ignorance, but isn't "Sleep" your friend here? Takes down wolves, orcs and goblins with a nice healthy saving throw penalty.

Or are their hit dice (and not just hit points) jacked up in HOF so that they are immune?

[krunchyfrogg]

Not sure, Ister. I know Undead are a lot more resistant to turning, monsters might be to sleep as well (?).

[Dundee Slaytern]

I'll get back to this thread in a few hours.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Easthaven:
---- ----

One of the earliest, and easiest, enemies you will get to fight in HoF mode are the Fire Beetles in the basement of the pub. Talk to the pub owner about her problem and proceed downstairs. The good thing about these beetles is that they do not move, and they are melee. Using the superior range of the quarterstaves that your party started off with, proceed to poke the beetles to death.

As your party is only level 1, expect to only hit the bettles on a critical strike. Do not bother with spells here, just be patient and go read a book or something while your party robotically swing away. If you have a Bard or a pureclassed Thief, they will level up after you have killed all the beetles( assuming that you have a party of six). Deed done, go get more XP by talking to the pub owner again.

You can get a gem by using your Bard to talk to the people in the pub. If you have a Dwarf, get him/her to talk to the female Dwarf in the pub.

The next easy quest is to solve the dream quest. Go find Johad and then go find the Sea Nymph. If you have a Bard, use him/her to talk to the Sea Nymph to open up new dialouge options which will lead to even more XP. Remember, HoF mode also exhances the Quest XP, so squeeze as much as you can out of it in the early game.

Once done, go find the Drunk Neb and use a Mage to talk to him out of his drinking habit. By now, you should be level 2-3, and the only thing you have whacked so far were some pushover beetles.

You should also have some decent money by now, so go to Pomab's and go upstairs to ransack his place. There are some good scrolls to be had here for your Mage/Bard. Plate Mail is good for your melee characters, if you can afford it, while Thieves should get Studded Leather. Bards and Mages will have to go naked for now( choosing Armor as their first spell choice is a good idea, since the scrolls from Pomab's give you offensive power).

Now go find the wolf that has been disturbing the peace in the western part of the town. If you have a Ranger, use Charm Animal on it. Otherwise, blast away with all your offensive spells and ranged weaponary while one bait lead the wolf around the table in the cabin.

To deal with the Goblins in the east, send someone to gingerly step by step inch closer to the goblins' line of sight. Try to lure them one by one, so that you can nuke them with all you got, six to one, fair shmair. Do not feel embarassed to rest after each fight. This is HoF mode. Even the Goblins will eat you alive if you underestimate them. Besides, it only cost one gold to rest in the inn nearby.

After looting all the houses, sell off whatever you do not need and proceed outside. You will encounter some wolves, three of them. Try to charm two of them using either a Druid or a Ranger, and get them to fight each other. Otherwise... you will need to use a method, which you WILL need to use later on.

The "Charge In, Hurl Everything Plus The Kitchen Sink, Run Out, Recharge, And Repeat" method.

Ergo, you fill up all your spell slots with offensive spells. Send in your tank to distract the wolves while you FOCUS FIRE on the weakest one. Scorch it, blind it, curse it, shoot it, do as much possible damage as possible. When your tank is yellow /orange( NOT RED) life, retreat the whole party to rest and charge back in.

Why this works is simple. When you leave an area, any enemy that is still alive will by default, go back to their starting location. The only difference is, when you come back, they remember about it and charge after you. This leads to some terrifying moments in the Orc Cave.

Speaking of which, use this method in the Orc Cave, and under NO circumstances should you run blindly in the Orc Cave. If you attract the attention of too many Orcs, you will be totally overwhelmed and may result in a need to restart from an earlier savegame.

Chromatic Orb and Hold Person are your trump cards in the Orc Cave. A held opponent means automatic hits, which means even your frail old Mage can score a direct hit on a roll of 2. Alicorn Lance is good for direct damage and lowering their AC. Curse and Bless are good too, for enhancing your party's longevity in the battle. Remember to cast Curse BEFORE casting Chromatic Orb or Hold Person.

Remember to Focus Fire! When you rest, the monsters rest too...

It is possible to kill 1-2 Orcs per charge in, but even so, it is still a slow process. When it comes to the Ogres though, expect to take at least 4-5 trips to kill one.

Take advantage of the enemies' AI. Do not charge towards them. Let them charge towards you. Take advantage of the starting tunnel's narrowness and use your stun spells to block those behind.

Killing off all of them is a good thing, as you will garner a lot of XP from this trip. Lots of good items to loot from the cave too. Once you have accomplished your mission, go back to Easthaven and pickpocket the people at the temple for some free Potions of Healing. Remember to Quicksave before your pickpocket attempts.

Congratulations. You have completed Easthaven. Onward to the area where most people give up on HoF mode. The Goblin Zone. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[krunchyfrogg]

You forgot to mention talking to two different townspeople with a gnome or halfling for a fish head (25 GP) and any townperson with a dwarf (say you're hunting for treasure in dwarven ruins for a gem).

Awesome post Slaytern!

[ZFR]

I just wonder... is it possible to lure one monster at a time from the goblin caves? I think HoW introduced the so-called "call to arms". For me anyway, even if you alert only one monster, the whole group comes after you.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Not possible, due to Call to Arms. Hence the need for caution when advancing deeper into the Orc Cave.

One group of Orcs is a pain, two is messy, three gets ugly.

[Raffin]

A few interesting notes:


*******SPOILERS*****


1. the dwarf gem thing is not with the female dwarf, but a different townsperson in the Inn, who talks of financing your expedition.
2. The halfing/gnome bit gives you a fish for getting offended. Interesting fish...identical to the one the boy lost to the goblins. So he takes it as a reward when you talk to him. Makes that segment a little easier, though you still fight the goblins to get to the Orc Cave.
3. It is possible to take on some orcs by themselves. The first group by the entrance, the two just further in, the large group in the center, the two groups at NW and N areas, the group just before the big one, and the big group with orges-each of these is seperate. Each can be fought seperately, therefore. Call to arms will summon the members of the same group, but not different groups (except when you activate them by wandering into their territory.

I'm having fun with the HoF from start-very challenging. Easthaven was a cinch, though the goblins were a bit rough. I had a nailbiting series of fights in the cave-beat everyone eventually, but had to retreat many times, and, therefore, lost the contract (d'oh!).

I'm at the goblin areas now, doing fairly well. The extra experience (2,000 xp for killing a chicken! Score! ) is helping. BTW-quest experience for HoF is exactly the same as insane level...checked this on the Easthaven quests .

On the plus side, ranged fighting works wonders. The old "everyone shoot target X, and whoever he attacks runs in circles" routine cleans up pretty well. Chromatic orb and hold person did wonders in the caves.

I'm doing Bard, Halfling Fighter, Dwarf Fighter/Cleric (for buffs more than healing), Humans F->Mage, F->Druid, and Thief->Fighter (at 5/5 on the later).

More later-cool thread [img]smile.gif[/img]

-Raffin