HoW last battle need help

[Tygrlilie]

I am in the last battle. Let's just say I am getting the stuffing kicked out of me. Each time I battle, with all 6 people in full health, they all die. I need all the help I can get. Any Ideas?

Thank you in advance.



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[Father Bronze]

It took me about a dozen reloads to finish that battle. When I finally did, my party of 6 was left with 2 badly injured and limping away.

What's your party made up of?

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Father Bronze]

Here's what I did . . .

Spoilers (for those not at this point in the game) below:
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First of all, cast Haste, Chant, Protection From Evil, Protection from Fire, Strenght, and anything else you can think of . . . As you've figured out, you need it all.

I usually save one Haste and some Protection from Fire for after the Dragon (or I think it's that whirlwind thingy) dispells you enchantments.

I summoned mosters. Fortunately I had a Durid with me and could summon Fire elementals. I cast Grease in the vicinity of the Dragon so that when the supporting creatures tried to swarm me, they were slowed. I cast fireball a couple of times into that mass. I had my Druid then go on healing the party while my two fighters pounded away.

Another thing I noticed was that if you have a quick character show up in front of the other monsters, they tend to follow that character. Then you can spend a lot of time running around while your fighters deal with the dragon.

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Tygrlilie]

Father Bronze,

My characters are...a fighter, a ranger, a fighter/thief, a thief, a cleric and a mage.

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[Father Bronze]

Spoiler . . . Don't read unless you are fighting the last battle.
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Originally posted by Tygrlilie: Father Bronze, My characters are...a fighter, a ranger, a fighter/thief, a thief, a cleric and a mage.

First, make sure your thieves are hiding in shadows before you enter that last doorway. They should stay hidden through the dialogue and the beginning of the battle. If you're quick, you should be able to double backstab on the priests. I happen to have potions of invisibility, set those in the quick slots and after your first backstab, quaff the potions, walk away, come back and backstab again. Otherwise, just run really fast after you backstab.

Your first goal should be to take out the spellcasters. As you know they cast all sorts of fire damage spells and wear down your fighters really quickly (prot. from fire helps -- cast it on your fighters again, or drink a fire resistance potion to keep them immune). The enemy clerics will also start healing which will drag the battle on even longer. Remeber that a well timed arrow or magic missile will disrupt enemy spellcasters.

One of your first spells should be web, grease, entangle, etc. (web will immobilize spellcasters, so that might be the best. If you don't want your own fighters bogged down, have them drink potions of freedom. You need something to slow down the ambushing horde. Follow this up with summoning spells (Animate Dead, Monster Summoning, etc.) Then launch Fireball, Magic Missile, Holy Smite, or some other big damage spell (be sure to avoid your own party and summoned monsters). Finally, if you will eventually want to move your cleric to healing, so cast any last offensive spell you can. If the mage starts to become less effective, have him/her cast invisibility on him/herself and sit in a corner. Otherwise, I try to have lots of magic missiles and such to help support the others. Don't bother with lower resistance. I don't think the Dragon has that great of magic resistance.

Your fighter should be pretty well equipped (AC around -7). If possible, give him/her a big shield to lower the AC even more. The fighter and ranger should be able to get a start on the Dragon while the thieves, cleric and mage take out the horde. You might be able to distract the Dragon with a summoned creature, or just the fighter, depending on how many summoned creatures you have and how low the fighter's AC is (and how many potions of healing he/she has).

Hope this helps.

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Tygrlilie]

Originally posted by Father Bronze: Spoiler . . . Don't read unless you are fighting the last battle. . . . . . . First, make sure your thieves are hiding in shadows before you enter that last doorway. They should stay hidden through the dialogue and the beginning of the battle. If you're quick, you should be able to double backstab on the priests. I happen to have potions of invisibility, set those in the quick slots and after your first backstab, quaff the potions, walk away, come back and backstab again. Otherwise, just run really fast after you backstab. Your first goal should be to take out the spellcasters. As you know they cast all sorts of fire damage spells and wear down your fighters really quickly (prot. from fire helps -- cast it on your fighters again, or drink a fire resistance potion to keep them immune). The enemy clerics will also start healing which will drag the battle on even longer. Remeber that a well timed arrow or magic missile will disrupt enemy spellcasters. One of your first spells should be web, grease, entangle, etc. (web will immobilize spellcasters, so that might be the best. If you don't want your own fighters bogged down, have them drink potions of freedom. You need something to slow down the ambushing horde. Follow this up with summoning spells (Animate Dead, Monster Summoning, etc.) Then launch Fireball, Magic Missile, Holy Smite, or some other big damage spell (be sure to avoid your own party and summoned monsters). Finally, if you will eventually want to move your cleric to healing, so cast any last offensive spell you can. If the mage starts to become less effective, have him/her cast invisibility on him/herself and sit in a corner. Otherwise, I try to have lots of magic missiles and such to help support the others. Don't bother with lower resistance. I don't think the Dragon has that great of magic resistance. Your fighter should be pretty well equipped (AC around -7). If possible, give him/her a big shield to lower the AC even more. The fighter and ranger should be able to get a start on the Dragon while the thieves, cleric and mage take out the horde. You might be able to distract the Dragon with a summoned creature, or just the fighter, depending on how many summoned creatures you have and how low the fighter's AC is (and how many potions of healing he/she has). Hope this helps.

I DID IT!!! Thank you for the help.



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[Father Bronze]

Glad to be of service.

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Leafy]

I saved right before the dragon; exited and tyhen changed to heart of fury mode to try the boss like that. I've come very close, but my 4player party gets slowly picked appart. Strategies?
Storm Shell is vital in escaping the damaging effects of the dragon's ice cloud.
i actually don;t have anyone who can cast this spell, but made the dagger of ice which casts this as an ability 1/day.
SPREAD OUT! I throw my cleric/mage in the far right corner, my bard in the lower corner; my Ranger/cleric in tyhe north and thew fighter/thief sneaks in for some sucker punches (she falls back on her bow very quickly after taking any damage).
I'd lobbed about 4 fireballs in the mess of spellcasters; it only weakens them. I wind up having to consentrate arrows from thief and magic missles/crossbow from my bard. The cleric/mage (like the bard) just stands there and summons whatever he can (5 fire elementals and a mess of critters.... bardi summons shades and shadows. these creatures serve to occupy the dragon so she doesn't come over and hit someone once or twice; thus ending their time in this world.
Biggest problem? Spell casters. they keep dispewlling affects. webs and entagle don't hold them either. though, i managed to stop some agression with the symbol of hoplessness; but that's hit or miss.
I know strategy, so there's not much lacking there (this is heart of fury mode, remember. strategy=don't get hit)
Can anyone think of a spell that actually protects against the enemy attacks (physical or magical). i'm looking for near immunity.
I'd also like to know if anyone has found any cool spells to use against those spellcasters or even the dragon. I know magic missles work, so don't be silly. Does mold touch or horrid wilting do the trick on those guys? (i'm not quite high enough level to cast those yet). I tried a silence spell, to no avail. And strangely enough, the high level clericl spell "power word silence" didn;t seem to help much... but maybe they were lucky? and i've never gotten the "Shout" to work. and there are even a spell or two (like holy word) that don;t even cast at all!
is this some kind of bug? would the new patch fix? I've hear 1.41 actually causes some bugs like making music and sound effects disappear. ugh

[Axterix]

In HoW mode, mobs seem to make their saving throws a lot, especially the higher level ones. I kept my guys quasi-bunched, but did have a bit of spacing and the weaker targets out of harms way. This let my cleric keep spells up on people as needed. Some things that I found work well are:

Mass invisibility. You can start with your whole party invis. Then after talking to the dragon, pick the place to fight. The moment you go vis though, the dragon comes for you. Just because you are out of sight doesn't mean you can buff up with defensive spells. Stormshell, by the way, has a short duration and is self only.

CR things. My own mage (who was in the 20's) got dropped by the dragon breath each time. Mage hp's just aren't meant to take dragon breath. CR does work against the dragon, but not fully. 100% CR means you take half damage, I think. Still, more is better. I finally left my mage dead and ressed him after the fight is over, once he'd done most of his damage. Would have gone much smoother with boots of the north or some protection from cold scrolls/spells.

Summoned critters. Give them other things to mulch on while you concentrate on taking out the helpers. This is about as close to immunity as you can get. They tend to hit that which is closest. So let that be a summoned critter. Also, you may wish to try quantity over quality. Why summon an elemental when you could use a same level spell to summon 3-5 polar bears or winter wolves?

Death fog. If you're in it, you move slower. This combined with summoned critters allows you to severely slow the movement of the enemies, while keeping them contained in a nice tight area for other area effect spells, like acid storm, fireballs, spike growth. Sure, it'll hurt your summoned critters. Oh well. Summon more.

Good arrows. Incendary arrows, acid arrows, arrows of piercing, bolts of biting, bullets of fire. If it's ranged attack, make sure it's a good one. And combine it with rapid fire bows/crossbows. Again, go for the helpers first, dragon last. Goblin arrows. Stock up on these. They hit, they summon a goblin. Great for when you run out of summoning spells. Just beware of the summoning limit and try and ration them a bit. Sure, they die fast. But better them than you. If you're close already, the goblin arrows alone may be just the edge you need.

Shield of Lathandar. The smaller version makes you immune to physical damage. The higher version also grants quite a bit of immunity to magic. Great for when you want to rush in to melee a bit.

Of course, you may be suffering from not having many of the high level spells. That's what you get for not playing in HoF mode the whole time... hehe, lacking the levels.

[Killer]

dragon you mean poquilin