Battle Squares help needed

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Trying to get Oria's key. I have read numerous posts on just having to complete "three-in-a-row" in the Battl;e Squares game to be able to receive Oria's key. Nothing happens when I do this. The Ice Golem Champion just says "Square Obtained" then "Select Destination Square" each time. The game effectively never ends.

What am I doing wrong? Is this a bug?

Any help gratefully appreciated.

TIA

 

Check out this link. Go down to the section on "Battle Room"...

http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/Walkthrough/chapter2/area3.php

 

Thanks, but that is essentially where I started. I followed the patterns on the link and the golem never says "Rank 1 completed" like it is supposed to. The golem never says anything except "Square Obtained" then "Select Destination Square" each time.

 

Ooookay.


Did you see this page ... Battle Squares ?

There are 5 different "patterns" that you have to solve to complete a "rank". You don't have to do the patterns exactly as shown, but you do need to solve BS once with 3 squares, once with 4 squares, etc., up to once with 7 squares. You don't have to do them in that order. You could solve them in any order as long as you've done 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 squares. Also note that the "tic-tac-toe" is considered "solved" once you have 3 in a row, when you're trying to solve for a pattern with more than 3 squares in it, make certain that the last square you place is the one that causes there to be 3 in a row.

Once you've completed each of the 5 "patterns" the rank will have been completed.

 

Do you get the Xs and Os for completed/defeated squares, or do the enemies just keep coming back infinitely without a break? If the latter it would be a bug.

-Max

 

Ok, what happens is that I do get the "x"s each time I defeat a monster. But the battle squares game never ends even when I complete 3 in a row.

For example, if I use pattern 1 from the link, the diagonal 3 "x"s, I thought the game was supposed to give me Oria's key?

When I complete the third “x”, I do not receive the Oria’s key. The Ice Golem Champion just says "Square Obtained" then "Select Destination Square" each time.

It doesn’t matter which of the patterns in the link I use, I never receive the key.

thanks

 

Ah, this is the root of your problem. You get Oria's key when you complete a LEVEL, which has 5 ranks. You finished the first rank (3 in a row) but you have to do 4, 5, 6, and 7 in a row on the same difficulty setting. And yes, that's right, to finish all 10 levels you need to kill (3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7) * 10 = 250 monsters of steadily increasing difficulty in single combat.

-Max

P.S. Oops, I said that in a confusing way. You can never get 7 in a row in Tic-tac-toe, but I meant "win with 7 squares", etc. Of course the trick is to avoid ending with 3 in a row before you get to 7 squares, which is where the patterns may be helpful to some people.

 

You don't actually have to do the 5 different patterns (3,4,5,6, and 7) in order. You can do them in any order, and you'll have completed the "level" once you've done at least one of each different pattern. In fact, I usually preferred doing them more in reverse, because I found that if I found get the "7" pattern done, I could usually get a 3 or 4 pattern done on the same set of buffs.

Regardless, the last couple of times I played IWD2, I used the mod that allows you to skip battle squares, but get all of the rewards and XP without having to fight all 250 battles.

 

Ye, Skip Battlesquares has gotta be one of my absolute favourite mods. Once you learn how to do it properly once, it's just a waste of time actually going through the steps required on subsequent playthroughs IMHO.

 

Yeah, no kidding.

It wouldn't be so bad if there was only one set of battles. But the amount of treasure, gold, and XP to be gained makes it difficult to want to completely ignore battle squares (beyond the absolute minimum). Particularly, a couple of the specific Level award items, like a certain club...

 

Who cares about a club when there's a +5 (yes, PLUS FIVE!!) sword available as well.. Oh well, both is still better, I guess.

 

The sword isn't as useful as the club. Versus undead and outsiders the club has a instant kill chance and versus the rest you can do far more damage with the two-handed weapons you'll find later.

 

I like the sword better than the club, since the only one who currently engages in melee on a regular basis is my decoy with STR 6 and only BAB +4, and the extra +2 to attack (and ignoring armor/shield) is really nice. Of course I switch to the club vs. undead, but the sword gets a lot more usage.

-Max

 

IF you intend on fighting all 250 battles in Battle Squares, the club can really help get some quickie kills and save yourself some grief. Yes, it is a bit of a specialist weapon, but it's a very useful weapon in those special circumstances.

 

Thank you. I see now.

Thanks to all who helped. I did finally get fed up with Battle Squares and installed the mod.

 

From a strictly power gaming prospective, what would be the best character build to make for the Battle Squares? I mean something that you design from the moment you land in Targos and build up specifically for this one challenge. Given the level restrictions (aside from he war drum exploit) of where you are at Battle Squares in normal mode?

I've read the power gaming guide, but this is a bit more specialized. Any power gaming suggestions?

 

If you want to play the honest way pure class druid is the best choice. You can do a lot of extra damage with static charge and heal yourself between battles.

The most powerful build for this task would be half-orc druid with starting stats 20-18-16-1-18-1 who raises only strength at level up and drinks the potion of holy transference to get the bonus level 5 spell. Rapid shot, GSF transmutation, scion of storms (the first 15 skillpoints must be put into spellcraft) and weapon focus are useful feats to kill the enemies as fast as possible. You also need a cleric and a sorc (or wizard) in the party for buffing.

Even druids with weak physical stats can do quite well because of shapechange.

 

I used a barbarian X/fighter 2 to get through the battle squares. I just buffed him up with my cleric and wizard before each battle. Towards the end (levels 7 and above), I had to lower the difficulty level down to easy. After fighting the same battles over and over again, I started to really lose my patience. I found that my barbarian does enough damage to be able to win. I still have to do reloads because of the teleporting mosters. The club of disruption is good when fighting the right type of creatures.

 

Sorry, for taking so long. I'm attending night school to get a better degree and I've got papers that are taking up my time instead of RPGs. What I had in mind was a character that I could build the rest of a 6-character party around like many people do with mules that once I finally reach that point would be ready to face the challenge without so much reloading. Once I beat the battle squares I could develop him normally.

No, I don't necessarily mean level squatting him, as I can see a character who is being prepared for Battle Squares being quite useful for taking out the Ogres at the Shanegarn Bridge while the rest of the party engages everybody else.


Anyways, in response to that, couldn't I just have my regular party druid cast static charge before the battle along with the buffs and have my fighter-type do the fighting?

 

The golem will teleport rest of your party away into a far away room at the beginning of each battle. However, as long as it doesn't see anyone else besides your preferred combatant, there will be no teleporting and you can use the rest of your party to give ranged support, while remaining outside the golem's range of view.

But if you're willing to succumb into cheese like that, you might as well get it over with and install the "Skip Battle Squares" from Ease-of-Use mod. You'll net a bit over 7,000 exp on the spot (7,245 IIRC) plus a WHOLE lot of misc crap, enough to fill three complete inventories.