Favorite enemies for rangers

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What's your favorite bane? For me is giants. I almost always pick giants as favorites. Sometimes trolls. A ranger with high Str and using a 2H Sword with Giants as favorite enemy can inflict quite a punch especially against Frost and Fire Giants.

 

I usually go for orcs, goblins and undead. Mainly undead, for roleplaying purposes. My ranger hates vampies

 

You do realise that this is IWD, don't you? There are no vampires in IWD.

 

Giants is a good choice, since they are tough, you need to bring them down as fast as possible. Choosing orcs, goblins, or other weak critters will not help at all, they will still die in one good hit. Though I guess it may help at the start of a HoF game. Mm, now it does not sound like a bad idea, indeed!

 

Goblins die fast even in HoF. As for orcs, it might help you. Not against the common orcs, but against the Orogs in Dorn's Deep. They also count as orcs.
One of the old tactic many players used was to put skeletons as favorite enemies on a ranger/cleric. While it was efficient, the skeletons are weak anyway.

 

For roleplaying purposes I try to consider my character's background. As a Ranger in a forest/mountainous region he/she is most likely to have dealt with Goblins, Orcs, Giants or Gnolls during his/her formative years.

I would usually choose Goblins or Orcs as they are considered more proliferate in most game/book settings. IMHO

For sake of the game I would choose Giants since that would proably give you the best benefit.

 

Cadaverous Undead.
The wights in Kresselack's tomb and on Burial Isle are the are the most annoying enemies in the game.
It doesn't help if parts of the game which are already too easy get even easier, so I wouldn't choose giants for example.

 

You never played in HoF, did you? Those wights are too easy. Put a shield spell on you to waste their magic missiles and hack them. 2-3 hits and their dead (again). As for Burial Island, electricity spells are your friends.

 

Trolls are a great choice.

 

I would agree with Klorox. Even in IWD II they are somewhat numerous.

 

@redrake: I soloed HoF mode three times with three different freshly created level1 characters.

The giants look impressing but aren't a threat once you face them. You can take them out easily without them getting a single hit in, for the roleplaying athmosphere it would have been better having a harder time fighting those impressive looking humanoids.

Wights are immune to normal weapons, when you face the first ones in Kresselack's tomb with probably only a dagger as magical weapon it's annoying, especially since you won't have wasted profiency points in dagger for your warriors.
The shield spell doesn't free you from having to face them in melee. Summons can't hurt them either.
And in HoF mode they have far more than 100 HP.

It doesn't hurt to have a bonus against the cold wight armies in Dragon's Eye 3 either.

If you exclude TotL Burial Isle is the hardest part in the game, you have many hard fights against enemies which aren't even special and the rest of HoW is just a piece of cake afterwards.
It's not that difficult any more if you get more experienced, but the other parts of the game are even easier.
You'd rather want to memorize epic boss battles as challenges than a grave robbery excursion.

If you have a pure or dualclassed cleric who gains XP too fast (small party, other difficulty level than normal) there's of course no need to fight them, he can just turn the undead challenges the programmers set up for you.

There are many trolls in the game, but the only challenging fight involving trolls is in Dragon's Eye if you have HoW installed.

It's no mistake if you just make a roleplaying choice about the favored enemy.
The bonusses are not high enough to make a big difference in gameplay anyway.

 

Great reminder Klorox, how could I forget Trolls!

 

You get a Long sword +1 on the first level of that Tomb. You can find a magic weapon on the Yeti Chieftain and a Mace+1 in the Yeti Cave. That's 3 magic weapons beside the dagger you can find in one of the tombs in the valley.

In Burial Island, you are already high enough in level to kill them easily with the Three White Dove mace or if you can cast fire based spells.

 

I always go for skeletal undead, because they are so prevalant - especially in the first few chapters of the game. I'd say cadaverous undead, but you see skellies a lot more often. I think it's a waste to use it on Orcs or Goblins because they're so effortless anyway, and on Giants because by the time you face them, the +1 to hit/damage from your racial enemy bonus doesn't help all that much.

Another bonus to the racial bonus vs. skeletal undead is their sheer numbers in game, combined with their fairly low HP. Killing them quickly isn't much of an issue when you're fighting one or two of them. Quick kills can mean life or death when fighting a large group, however.

I think the only other useful racial enemy bonus is vs. Trolls, but that's me.

 

I think that "Death Rabbit's" analysis is VERY true.
Skeletal undead are the best choice, for the reasons exposed.
(The vast numbers of special skeletons in specific zones of The Hand dungeons, for exemple, are a good exemple. You must kill , and kill fast ! The bonus of the ranger of the party are never to disdain, here).

Giants, ettins and/or cyclops are slow, stupid, et so easy to arrow that they have no time to injury my vanguard of wolves, bears (or elementals, when middle level). I have near real shame to take theirs X.Pts. !
Trolls problem, in IWD, is not the difficult task to HIT them, but more to have the sufficient number of fire arrows or fire spells to despatch them with a "coup-de-grâce" [ en français dans le texte ! ]
( At low level in Dragon's Eye, fire disponibility is sometimes a problem if you dont sleep enough ).
Do not trolls more impressive that they are.

Note : I play IWD1, but I use no extensions of it. Perhaps that my advice is no more valid with extensions installed I point out that.

[ October 21, 2006, 15:02: Message edited by: Cal Yhringlor ]

 

I agree. Giants and Cyclops near the end of the game, man I do not even bother to fight them. I just cast a Disintegrate and/or Finger of Death after a Malison from support caster and they die. Easily. No needless blood shed. At that point your casters are so powerful that fighting is a last ressort. (well for me anyway)

 

... Hey, shame on you, colleague wizard ! Respect the magic use !
— No blood shed, OK, I agree, but with your heretic way of life, your are near-ready to release major magic on small gobelins with little axes, the path you take !

Cheap monsters merit only cheap deaths (and cheap arrows, by the way)

On the other hand, dont ALWAYS insult them.

• Prove sometimes your sportive attitude with an occasional VampiricTouch ! ... or, if you feel yourself really warlike, remember that in IWD, there is (where, already ? ...) a +5 dagger (+5 to hit) [ its french name is "Fourreau d'Échines", (perhaps << Backs Scabbard >> or something so in english) ] :

• Then use it !

 

Well, magic is far superior than the sword, in my games anyway. And resorting to use a PUNY dagger? No way. Only daggers I use are those which grant extra spell slots...

 

Strange.
(vague unease).
I am wizard in the soul, but ...
... i arrive to the opposite conclusion.


Humm ... I DISCARD spell-bonuses hand-arms (daggers, etc), because they inhibit the LIBERTY to use my sling, always in the 1rst slot of the 2.

In IWD I ressort use of spell-bonus arms only for a night ou two, to memorise more Identify spells when the treasure gathering is good (as in Ice Giants Cave, if you remember !).

Perhaps you dont fully realize the simultaneous firepower of 3 bows + 3 slings, used with clever judgment.

For me, all-magic tactics are good at HIGH LEVEL. In BG2 I love them, for exemple !
But in IWD ...
Mmm. I repeat i dont use IWD extensions, however.
What think others players of our tactical differences ?