Low Level Party Challenge

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Hello, I am doing a playthrough of this wonderful game after nearly forgetting about it for about 5 years. After just a few hours of the game i almost gave up because of the clunkly interface, impossibly slow screen scrolling and getting my butt handed to me by phaen during the goblin attacks and being forced to reload for about 2 hours before managing to win.

I am currently doing a low level challenge (my characters are all level 6 except for one who is level 5). I have 1 barb/fight 2 clerics 1 wizard and 2 sorcs I am using UPP, but im leaning towards converting my guys into JUPP. Ive manged to get to the last chapter and I am about to fight Iyachtu Xvim but I can't seem to do any damage before he meteors me to death. I can stall it out to a point where he runs out if spells and is left with only meele attacks but even then i just cant touch him.

I am using wei's ease of use mod as well as widescreen so I have access to quiet a few items normally only available in HoF mode including sunfire talisman and bile of the damned.

My question, is there any way at all for a level 6 average party to beat Xvim without using any console cheats/bard infinite stacking or do i have to bite the bullet and level up my characters. I am fine with cheese like Otiluke sphere decoys and improved invisbility+non dectection and of course squatting.

disclaimer: I realize from briefly skimming these boards that many look down on cheese tactics but i ask you not to center the topic around it as it is a single player game and the right course of action is the one that brings the player the most enjoyment.


TL;DR ===============================================
Is there anyway for a level 6 average party to beat Xvim and even isair/madae in normal mode assuming you have access to one copy of most items (HoF included) without using bard song stacking?


Thanks

 

The Phean battle shouldn't be that difficult at all on normal mode. Are you sure you have the difficulty set as normal?

 

Madae WILL eradicate your entire party with one Blasphemy, as it kills directly at such low levels.

Xvim has pretty decent damage resistance (15/-) against most anything, even more so to fire, so your only real chance is hoping for big critical hits with two-handers. I haven't tried cold/acid/shock attacks on him, but I gather there aren't that many options available anyhow at such low levels. You could try the elemental weapons and see if they put a dent on him?

 

This is just my kind of challenge. I have played several of the BG & IWD games with low level parties. It can be very slow and boring doing loads of reloads but I often play for a while and then stop for a few days before doing a bit more. I usually start out and level up a bit until I can make progress and then not level up again. The point being that you keep getting better equipment and spell scrolls so there is usually a way to beat the hard fights by using your best items (provided you can stay alive long enough to use those items). And using lower difficulty settings is an option if things get really tough.

IWD2 wasn't my best effort and my level 5 party didn't quite make it to the end game, so no advice I'm afraid. I'm impressed you have done so well. IWD1 and BG1 are much easier for a really low level party.

 

Silvery: For some reason I just hit level 2 before the start of the battle and I foolishly sold all my explosive potions(which would have helped A LOT). I also could have killed phaen via a quest earlier but alas.

Sir Rechet: Blasphemy has forced more reloads than i care to admit! I wish I had made an all evil party but the lure of the holy avenger and spontaneous healing was too great.

-With a little more testing I've found that xvim has no resistance to bludgeoning weapons(sadly i don't have any good ones with pure damage instead of elemental additives) and in theory I could turn the fight into one of attrition and pray i have enough in spell reserve to win. its really his 80 ish fire resistance(immune to fireball/aganar's scrocher) and general spell resistance that kills me because it means my 3 casters can do little but twiddle their fingers in the corner while he slaughters my melee heroes.
-he is also vulnerable to a mass dominate scroll but sadly that does nothing for me but allow for a small respite to heal.

Midget Gems: Believe me it was not easy, I essentially had to rest after even small fights because my heroes had exhausted all if not most of their spells and there were some fights that took literally 1-2 hours or reload and careful re planning to win(yaun-ti temple fight, sherincal, magma chamber final fight etc etc. Regardless I found it a thoroughly enjoyable and challenging experience.

 

lendial: I had forgotten the details of my low-level IWD2 part, but I checked and found that I used a Level 3 party. So lots and lots of reloads and sleeping for me too. I eventually hit a bug in dragons eye and decided to stop there, but I did better in IWD1 since it is a bit easier to play.

It can be interesting to try a battle and get completely hammered for the first few attempts, until gradually an opportunity arises that can be exploited. Like you say finding the best weapon, or the best spell combination and the best defensive position. And the boost you get when some powerful beast fails a vital saving throw and is left at the mercy of your so called weak party. Nice one.

Good luck with the end-game.

 

Update

I had to essentially start from the beginning after the realization that it was impossible to beat xvim without a character with high BAB and 3 or more attacks per round.

I remade the party using JUPP and managed to get back to the xvim fight in about 20-40% the time it took with UPP, mostly thanks to essentially muling most of my party and only allowing my sorcerer to get levels. Having a bard also helped a lot as the summoning horn from chapter 2 essentially lifted the need for a level 5 cleric spamming animate dead. the earlier chapters were made vastly easier due to varies characters having 18STR and 2 DG decoys with ridiculous innate magic.

my party level right before xvim was something like 5 5 6 14 3 2 (average level < 6). It was a difficult fight and it sadly came down to how well my ORS'ed druid could resist the dispelling effect of xvim's uber scimitar of pwnage. After about an hour of resets i was finally able to slay the beast(and got about 48 000 exp from the ordeal).

at this point, i added what ever levels i could to my sorc, she was 22 or so and proceeded to the final fight. I was sorely disappointed as i don't think madae casted blasphemy even once- though i had made sure this time around most of my party was evil. The monk allies in particularly were ridiculously hardy.

It seems the game makes adjustments to difficulty based on party average level as well as modified exp gain of course. Outside of a few near impossible fight(the guardian at chult, the iron golems, xvim!!!) its really possible to get through the game with nothing but a level 14 sorceress and some cannon fodder DGs.

anyways i reached HoF expecting to get slaughtered but wail of banshee has made things quiet comfortable. I am half way in chapter 1 and im finding it ridiculously easier than i expected, also, due to the level difference my party is essentially maxed. I feel like i don't even need to finish HoF at this point.

I was thinking of either starting on BG2(came highly recommended from friend) or restarting iwd2 normal mode again, this time with no mods(no infinite ammo stacking, no appearance of some HoF items in normal, no damage reduction from armor, no skipping battlesquare) and possibly a party that does not contain an overpowered sorc(!).