Battle squares tactics

Remove all ads!

Hi guys, just finished the Battlesquares last night! And I must say that it was quite worth it
I got some great items, and A LOT of XP.
I just thought it was quite easy (don't flame me please, maybe I was just lucky), I will just share my experience with the squares with everyone, maybe they will find it usefull.

The character who finished the squares in my party was: Half-orc, neutral good, Figher 4/Barbarian 8, Str 22/ Dex 14/ Con 18/ Int 12/ Wis 10/ Cha 1. He uses a greatsword, can't remember which one sorry, but deals a lot of damage, every hit for about 22 damage, with criticals of 45. Also he has improved initiative so he hits quite fast.

* First of all: When playing the battlesquares, save after every enemy! This is importent, for example if you're are heading for rank 5, you need 7 squares. If you past 6 squares and come across a very powerfull enemy, and you die, it's REALLY frustrating, so you can just reload and you only have to do 1 square. And since the enemy's are random, you might have a little bit more luck this time.
* Second of all: Let your wizard cast haste and improved invisibility on your main tank, take your character that deals the most damage and hits a lot. Don't concern a character with high HP, if you do it right, you will NEVER be hit, that's right, it's that easy. Also it is quite handy having a spell that gives you immunity to fear, because at the higher ranks, there are some demons that will cause fear, and this makes it quite difficult sometimes because you have a timelimit of 60 seconds.

Now let's start the battles...

Choose your character and haste him, then cast improved invisibility on him, and then pull the lever so let the battle begin.
I recommend doing rank 6 first, this will give you the mace of disruption, and can slay undead with one hit. You can also complete rank 1,2 and 3 first for some XP, in these ranks there aren't that many undead, so this is very easy.
So when you start, pick your square (all the tactics about what sqaures to choose can be found in the walkthroughs on SP) and beat the upcoming enemy to death...quick
My character did this VERY fast, he almost auto-hits, so most enemies, if they weren't undead, were down within 10 seconds or so, really.
Since you are invisible the don't attack you, you almost always hit, so it's just a matter of beating him to death, within 60 seconds. This is why you choose a character what deals the most damage in the shortest time, and not a char with high HP (you're character with the highest damage will most likely have a lot of HP too, so...).
So you shouldn't have any problems on the lower ranks. Maybe at rank 5 you might have to reload a couple of times, because you come along some monsters who are resistent to some of your attacks, also make sure you got some bludgeoning weapons ready, these can hit the monsters that are resistant to your attacks.

Now if you complete rank 6 you get the mace of disruption. Equip it right away, and for the rest of the squares you can use this one as your main weapon. The only enemies you can't disrupt are the Greater Feyrs and the, can't remember the name, but the pretty big creature, looks like a cross between a dragon and a worm.
But these are the only ones you can't disrupt, all the other ones you can, at least, it worked for me once .
So just attack everything except for those 2 with your mace of disruption, and wait untill they are dead, that easy. Sometimes it can take a while, they might succeed on their savingthrows a lot. So you might have to reload sometimes.

Now that about it for the sqaures.
After you complete it you have gained a lot of XP and some really cool items.
I have gained for about 15000 XP.

So I hope I can help some people with this.
Good luck you all!

[ December 25, 2002, 14:46: Message edited by: Roekemoes ]

 

hmmmz what verson do you got?

I mean are you using the known imp. Invisibility bug or the fiksed one(50% chance of outright miss)?

And as a helping hand... You can also use summons, animate dead and a roge worked for me

 

I don't use the patch, so probably using the bug hehe

And summons will also be teleported outside, right?

 

The problem with unpatched battle square is it is too easy. First you have the improved invisibility bug where enemies cannot see you even if you attacked them. Then you have the summons to help you in battle square.

If you patched the game, both will not work. The summons will be teleported to another room once they attacked. Improved invisibility is still helpful but not as absolute as in unpatched version.

 

OK, I tried to keep myself from posting this one but I can't anymore...
Why do you use just one character instead of your whole party? Yes, that's right... YOU CAN FIGHT BATTLE SQUARES WHILE ALL YOUR PARTY MEMBERS (AND SUMMONS) ATTACKING MONSTERS.
And this is patch 2.01...

 

How?

 

Another example of all-party fights in battleroom--

My tank was fighting something very ugly (Greater Ley?) that made him afraid. He ran away. The monster teleported into the small room where my four other members were sent by the gameroom and killed my mage.

Wow, I said, as I reloaded.

Not using improved invisibility (not judging you girly-men-illusionists or anything, you understand), my level 10 (pure fighter) half orc has maxed out at level 6. I'll have to come back later (when I'm more of a man--err, orc-man) to finish it. You can come back prior to going to Kul. on the blimp, from what I've heard.

 

You do get some teleportable monsters from the battle square, mostly demons. Now here is a way to purposely make the monster to your other members.

Summon minions before you start the square. Once you encountered a teleportable monster, send a minion to fight it and make sure the monster is targeting your minion instead of yourself. Upon contact, the minion will be teleported to the resting room and if the monster choose to chase it, it will teleporst itself also. Before you do anything, make double sure that the crystal golem is somewhere around the resting room. Then you can start to kill the monster. If the golem doesn't see you killing the monster, you wouldn't get the kill count.

i have also read somewhere in this forum that you can make everyone to kill any monster from battle square. i wasn't paying much attention that time and the method seems troublesome to me, as well as the above method that i mentioned.

Seriously, the easiest way to overcome the battle square is to take on the monsters face to face and, of course, the 'Club of Disruption'. While playing HoF mode, it is certained that every monster from battle square is a demon in highier levels. To kill him is very hard. i would go for the chance of 1/20 to disrupt them. You would be surprise by how frequent that 1/20 occurs.

[ December 28, 2002, 07:49: Message edited by: teekc ]

 

so u found it easy?
thats because of the improved invisibility...
i got a necromancer and cant use improved... so the square was pretty hard...

 

I found that if I placed my entire party (sans the main guy doing the killing) in the far right corner, about half the time only 2-3 of them would be teleported out of the room. The key is that when you send them to attack the enemy, the golem would teleport them away if it could see them. However, if you're careful, you can just have the enemy on the edge of the golem's sight radius (so it won't move up) and wail on it. This worked pretty well for me. I think that it was on the patched version, but don't really remember. Maybe someone could try it? I don't have my IWDII with me right now.

 

Sorry, I know it's been a little late but I was quite busy for a few days. Whatever, here is the way to play Battle Squares with full party.
Let your character, which will fight the squares, wait out of the room after you selected rank but not activate it. Then place your other 5 members at the northeast corner. You can also place them at the black area. Be sure that that golem can't see you. (If you can't, then so it can't.) After doing so, enter with your sixth character and activate lever to start fighting.
When a monster appears, rush it and don't let it move from the center point and be sure it attacks you. Then let your best fighter of other 5 attack monster too. Golem can't see him if he stands behind monster. Summon 1 or 2 undead, also behind monster, and attack with other four with ranged attacks and spells.
Most of them will be down in 20 seconds.
I followed this path from 5th rank to end although I know it's not fair.
BTW, THIS IS CHEATING...

[ December 30, 2002, 08:05: Message edited by: ANAKHA the ALMIGHTY ]

 

For all the people who read this post for the first time..

If you are using the patched version, this won't help for all the time, because you're improved invisibility will not save you this time, the monsters will attack you instead of just standing there.

This isn't a real big problem though. If you get the fighter all defensive spells you have, like stoneskin, barkskin, haste etc. He will be fine. But if you are using your character that just hits the most and for the most damage, I must rewrite the tactic Also pick a char with high HP, because now you will be hit sometimes.

The rest of the guide is still up to date and will work fine...You may have to reload sometimes if your mace of disruption just won't work, GOOD LUCK!

 

I have a pure fighter, level 21, in HoF. It takes about 20-40 hits per enemy to put it down. I don't think that you can hide anybody in the patched version. I have tried putting someone in other rooms and many other places in the basement level. I think that with the patch, that the program looks at the members in your party and just stuffs them in the center of the holding room. This would explain the fact that when he comes near the holding room and any of your party comes into his viewable area that they are re-teleported to the center of that room and re-teleported continuously. Thus a bug fix (as is common) when programmers are under pressure has created more bugs.
Also, for battle square tactics, the easiest enemies and the ones that I have yet to see teleported are the shadow and the drowned dead. The drowned dead takes me about 32 hits (usually doesn't get many hits in) and the shadow for about 20 hits that do little damage -- the drowned dead can do a lot of damge but rarely. The toughest at rank 6 is the multi-armed (four I think) thingy that looks lizardly but stands on two legs. The one that takes the most hits and I might run out of time is the fire elemental.
IaaA
See "Battle Squares = Annoying" for a discussion of the bugs noticed while playing battle squares.

 

Well Kam,
It worked just fine for as I mentioned above and it was the patched version. (Version 2.01)
BTW, I never used "Improved invisibility"; just normal "Invisibility" for my rogue/wizard to get the first attack, then run him back to party.(Arterial strike, crippling strike, envenom weapon works well)

 

Just for the record, this guide isn't for HoF.
I don't have any experience with HoF (soon I will have ), so just that you know...

 

I found it a bit boring to be honest, but went through it on the weekend. Level 11 fighter took out everything in there other than the damned elementals. I just reloaded when they came up, coz I could never seem to take them down in the 60 seconds.

Tactic? Just left all my party outside the North door, in order to buff him up again as required. Save between battles, essential though. V2.01 I think (UK release version). No invis or haste spells used though. Also USE that door for some of the larger ones, beautiful with that special throwing axe I got at one of the earlier ranks....

[ January 02, 2003, 15:06: Message edited by: Viking ]

 

Why didn't I think about that
Great tactic, esspecially against frost giants, I found myself almost always dead against these, they hit VERY hard. With a throwing axe it's a piece of cake...nice tactic!

 

I have seen this one somewhere else;
Have a druid and cast as more "Static Charge" as you can. Then just run around the monster while shapeshifted to fast monster. (Wolf or panther)

"With 4 or more "Static Charge" you will kill everything in 60 seconds." he wrote.