Battlesquares tactics?

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Is there any tactics to complete the battlesquares at low level, say lvl 10? The hiding-my-party-for-ambushing, and the animate dead tactics dont work for me at all as the stupid golem keep teleporting them out.

 

If you can, use Improved Invisibility. If not, then use all defense+offense enchancing spells on a best damage dealer and save+reload after each monster.

 

Do rank 6 early so you can get the Mace of Disruption which is very good against Cornugons and Glabrezu later on (it also works on gelugons and elementals but they have very high saving throws so need to critically fail which is unlikely).

Frost Giants and Remhoraz are easy if you lure them to the top door in which they get stuck and then hammer them with a two handed weapon. Remhoraz are especially easy and appear a lot on all the later ranks.

Improved Invisibility and Stoneskin are a must and possibly improved haste but it wears off quickly.

I completed battle squares when I reached it so my party were between level 8 and 10 but it did take me a good few hours of saving and loading to get creatures I could destroy.

Note some creatures teleport into the room with your party in (Greater Feyr, Glabrezu and Cornugon) which can be good because its 5 on 1 then but sometimes the game just gets stuck if the body does not disappear. This is a pretty major bug really and meant that I usually reloaded if i came across a greater feyr.

 

Imporved invis uses on a game flaw and thus (IMHO) is cheating , this tactic abuses BS rules and thus again IMHO is perfectly legit!

It is possible for more than one fighter to attack and NOT get teleported out!

But boy it's not easy, firstly I wouldn't even bother with the sqaures until you have at least finished act 2 and gained your bracers of cheese, they really help your tank, oh expertise, good shield and good saving throws also help later.

Remove all your characters from the room, get your tank to activate the game, as soon as the golem has stopped walking, bring all your characters in and assemble them in the furtherest corner, get your tank to activate the sqaure, now it helps if he is hasted but you can also do it if you click very quickly, as soon as tank can move walk to the centre sqaure (the one where the bad guys appear) it is important that tank engages them on that sqaure, now your mages can pelt the monster safely with arrows in the corner (no effect later on unless you are willing to waste good arrows) one of your characters (pref high str high dex) should equip that blunt returning hammer and he can attack safely - he can upgrade to the surestriking lighting axe when you get it. but those ideas are really the cherries on the cake, your real damage is going to come from your spearmen, yup you heard me right, equip two of your characters with good spears and while your tank does a good job of dodging they attack from behind, (a thief/warr is killer for this), almost always the monsters will continue to attack tank and ignore the 70 to 100 points of damage savaging him from behind!

Without haste it takes time to get right but if the monster doesnt move from that sqaure its a killing field!

Enjoy

 

maybe this is fftopic: but when I flip the levers, nothing happens.

Bug?

Stupid Player?

 

I can relate:

1) Did you kill t he golem?
Since I'm in Hof mod and don't want to miss anything I usually scour the level for info and get a general idea of what is going on, I ctrlaltdelete:enablecheatkey() to cleaar the annoying pests out and get a feel for the dialoge etc. First time through Battle Sqares was new to me and in my ravaging death kill fest I killed the golem, DOH! Kept seeing a voice "Ice Golem Champion" says something or other but no golem ... so don't kill it.

2)Are the levers positioned?
More than likely the bottom left levers are not set correctly. In the lower left corner of the room pull the first one ya come to and you here "maintenance mode" pull the second to start battle squares, if you get a inner sanctum mode ensure both levers are facing towards? or away?> from you. Once battle mode starts pull the 3rd and bottom most lever to initiate the squares, then click at the fist square and go to town!

 

Here's my - simple - tactic for completing ranks 1-6. My party has not finished chapter 2.

It includes the following characters:
Aasimar Sorcerer-10
Tiefling Rogue-2/Diviner-9
Human Morninglord of Lathander-12
Half-Orc Fighter-4/Barbarian-11
Shield Dwarf Battleguard of Tempus-1 (squatting!)
Aasimar Paladin-1/Sorceress-1 (squatting!)

I use the Half-Orc Fighter-4/Barbarian-7
(Str 22, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 1, Wis 18, Cha 1)

- Equipment:
Gauntlets of Weapon Skill (+1 Attack bonus)
Ring of Protection +1 (+1 Deflection bonus)
Chameleon Ring of Dexterity (+1 Dex)
Houndstooth Collar (immune to Panic and Fear)
2-H Sword +1
Flail +1

Before battle I cast the following - in this order to get the most out of the duration - on the Half-Orc:
Stoneskin
Death Ward
Freedom of Movement
Champions Strength
Aid
Magic Circle against Evil
Bless
Protection from Electricity
Emotion: Hope
Protection from Fire
Haste

After this it's normally just a matter of meleeing. If he runs into a Fire Giant he first tries to get in a few good hits with his sword. If he gets seriously injured he switches to the sling and takes advantage of his higher movement (Barbarian!).
This tactic is needed against maybe one or two other monsters - Elemental, Remorhaz (spelling?) - but the rest are quite easily killed.

First I did ranks 1 and 2, then rank 6 (to get the Club of Disruption) and after that ranks 3-5.
Unless your character is Specialized in Maces I don't think it helps all that much to get the Club of Disruption since almost every monster in the Battle Squares which has to save against this weapon does so on anything except a 1.

He did all 150 battles in ranks 1-6 without reloading - although he was close to death a few times against Fire Giants - so I think this tactic should work for anyone.

I'll try the higher ranks with the same tactic later today.

Difficulty - Normal
Max HP when levelling.

[ December 13, 2002, 07:36: Message edited by: Earl Grey ]