Need some help, advice, hints, tips, tactics, anything.....

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Hi guys,

Just beat Throne of Bhaal earlier in the week with ascension mod installed. Great game. I have now moved on to IWD2 and its driving me crazy.

My party:
Moon Elf: sorcerer
Assimar: palidan
Moon Elf: rogue
Half Elf: monk
Human: fighter
Drow: Cleric

My problem:

Im getting smoked on this game. Im only to the outside of the goblin fort and im having to rest after every skirmish. My players get killed very easily while its hard for me to kill the bad guys. The best tactic ive found is for my player with most hit points to get aggro and run around in big circles letting my other chars plink away with arrows and bolts and spells. Often though 2 or three chars will get aggro and I have to constantly pause and move them to safe spots away from approaching monsters. This is driving me crazy. One bad turn and my char is dead. Anyone have any tips or advice to offer? Right now, I could not imagine someone beating this game in Heart of Fury mode.

 

Mmmh, I didnt have too much troubles beating them, I had troubles getting the war drums out.

I always use my archers and spellcasters, trying to decrease the goblins moving speed or immobilizing them by web or entangle (I have a druid and ranger to cast entangle)
Cast spells to weaken them and use your archers. Take them out one by one, not fighting them all at the same time. An almost dead half-goblin still is a nasty piece of walking evil and does same damage as his uninjured brother. A few more hits and he wont hurt you again.
I also like to use mindaffecting spells like confusion etc
And I usually use my char with the best Armor Class as 'bait'

Buy some potions and sleep when you need to.

So here are my components:
Disabling spells
Arrows
Take them one by one

 

Good suggestions Nuhn but I have been unable to pull one monster at a time. I usually get 5 or more so i have to run around like a little girl.
When I fight the monsters I only attack one at a time until it is dead. Do I need a ranger or druid in my party?

 

NEED is too big a word, since almost every party is able to deal with encountered problems. But a druid is, to my opinion, a wonderful addition. Especially in combination with a cleric (but that's just me). Druids have much, versatile and good offensive spells. Entangle was my favourite spell in lower levels, in combination with area damage spells, a lot of arrows and later Freedom of movement. Since rangers have some druid spells available and are quite good fighters, too, they might be an other good add-on.

But since you don't have a character able to cast entangle, this is not an opportunity. Maybe your arcane spellcaster can use Web in stead. Or any other spell that scatters/immobilizes the group. But hey, this is just my tactic, and it's one of the 1000 possibilities. Too bad though, that I can't come up with one of the other 999.

 

Stats, please.

The present time I'm playing I'm soloing a paladin/wizard and I couldn't just run on them with my sword the most obvious NE way. Instead, I killed out the first fort in that direction and moved through the E bridge. Web was needed, several Agannazzar's Scorchers and chromatic orbs when something did get near. The other group, in utmost E direction was a hard task since there were swarms of them and it was plainly impossible to kill them out normally (not enough hp to fight circumvented even if they were only to hit on always hitting 20). I chose the SE corner as my defending position, cast web in some narrow point and aimed agannazzar's's where it would hit some 6-7 monsters. I still had to heal myself and drink potions later on and at the end I had to switch to bow hit and run tactics. As only NE sector was defended now, I destroyed the drum from behind the river with bow and arrows. So soon as I have rested and healed myself to my HP maximum I cast web over the bridge and provoked some monster with ranged fire. As they rushed through the bridge, I used my Agannazzar's' on them and killed what was left (later on I defended myself in the turret nearby). The last group of enemies were the goblin riders near the blocked fortress entrance - pretty much the same tactic, but after resting and healing.

 

Hi annectine,

I've had the same problems during the first chapter. So I decided to start again with a more powerplay-orientated party and min-maxed their stats out. I gave all of my party members the max. KON possible, depending on their race. So I've had no need for resting and using all my potions, anymore.
In my opinion, IWD 2 is more spell-orientated than BG 2, so I would suggest, that you multiclass your rogue to wizard as soon as possible. Trolls are very sensitive to chromatic orb, which stuns them. The goblins and orcs can be easily decimized with sleep. These are the most worthfull spells in the beginning, I think.
Don't worry to much, the game gets easier in the next chapters. The developers might have thought that a low level party have to rest after each fight...

 

Perhaps you could take the paladin, and turn Him Sorc. (Instead of wiz) To combine the Chr bonuses.

Sorcer's don't have to Find scrolls either, that's why i tend to suggest them. Because why bother with stinking cloud, when you can cast Fireball...

*Fav Char Thus Far*
Lartuen: Chaotic Neutral level 29 Drow Sorcerer.
(Effective level 31)
High spell resistance (Drow + Levels = Bam)
Greater Spell penetration
Greater Spell Necromancy
Greater Spell Evocation
Spirit of Flame

^_^

 

Well, you could bother with Stinking cloud because it can possibly disable your opponents for a while. A wizard is much more versatile then a wizard. A sorcerer is more powerfull, but not always the best choice. DC-ing a rogue with a wizard might be a good suggestion, since he already has a sorcerer...

 

If you are not above cheating, you could use Dale Keeper 2 to give your characters a bit of an advantage. give those Half-Goblins HELL!

Check your spelling, Nuhn.

 

Well, erm... heh, that is... I mean... erh, A wizard with 18 Int is much more versatile then a 6 Int wizard. Yeah! That's what I mean.
And I would be the low Int wizard here, heh?

Needless to say, I ment to make clear that a wizard is more versatile then a sorcerer.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I started a new party. The monk didnt seem to help my party much. I added a bard and added some wizard levels to rogue. The added casting power has really helped. Also I noted that I had started on hard setting instead of normal. Normal is challenging enough for me. I have to save after every minor battle to keep from pulling my hair out.

 

I beg to disagree with that statement. I consider a sorcerer as more versatile than a wizard.

Sure, a wizard can memorize and thus cast a wider range of spells per day than a sorcerer. But you're stuck with your choices. A sorcerer can cast whatever spell from his repertoire that best fits the current situation. And if your sorcerer doesn't know the spell you need for the occasion... that's what scrolls are for.

For P&P D&D it's a different story. But as far as BG2 and IWD2 are concerned, I find sorcerer + occasional use of scrolls more versatile than wizard.

 

Well... Your fighters shoulda have max (or at least 14-16) in constitiution, as well as high str... Max or at least keep the main casting characteristic (Charisma for Sorcerers/Bards, Intellegence for Mages and Wisdom for Clerics/Druids/Paladins/Rangers) at a revatively high number. What kind of difficulty do you play at??? Lowering the difficulty can help A lot.

Edit: Elves really suxxors in IWD II, i try to keep the elven prescence relatively low, my cleric (seems that this game was branded with a female Drow Cleric in, almost every party) and mayhap a Halfelf is what i usually take during party creation (i, myself thinks that elves are WAAAY overrated). Dwarves are almost a must, their high HP coupled with levels in both Fighter and Barbarian can usually help you out. A Cleric is also something no-one can forget (Healing ownz0rz), i usually take a Morninglord, why??? Because you get their special power (Lathanders Renewal, heals number of HP/level, once per day), Turning is in this game (and every game from Baldur's Gate) useless, (unless you spend stat points on charisma). It's better if get ya druid up so he/she can cast Moonblade to get e'm or have a Silverstar. Wizards/Sorcerers is almost as needed as O2(Oxygen), i go for overkill, multiclass your Bard with Sorcerer, but keep the Bard 2 lvls higher than the Sorcerer to get the Warchant of Sith...

Never forget the importance of Buffs!(spells, for the most part, as well as potions and other equipment) wich can help you through some really bad situations or dire battles, Haste, Prayer and remove fear is very important for buffering up ya' tanks so they kick whatever may stand before you and your party.

Also we have a contender for the grammatical moron of the week: Palidan???

[ April 20, 2003, 21:28: Message edited by: Woodwyrm ]

 

As with most rpg's. If you are having a lot of trouble, stick with the basics.

Get a party of big muscle heads that can swing heavey weapons..

(6) Human/Dwarven Fighter:
18+str
14+dex
18+con
03 int
03 wis
03 chr

Give them all good armor, and weapons. Set custom script to fighter agressive, turn on the AI, and "Cry havok, and let loose the hounds of war"

 

6 fighters: Cry - God for Harry, England and St George!

Oh well, a day late I know.

Back to the problem at hand:

The party is balanced enough, but you might be light in arcane spells. The key is certainly planning at that stage. It was one of the toughest parts of the game first time round when I didn't know what to expect.

Use your skills and spells wisely, stock up on healing potions. Try to take out one group at the time. Area effect spells and ranged attacks are good. Web, grease and stinking cloud is a great combo against critters like these. If you can drop in a fireball at that point, Bob's your uncle, but you may not have the level for that yet.

Regroup and rest after each encounter.

Also make sure you've got everyone as well kitted out as you can with armour etc.

 

I recently went through this area in HoF, and it is possible, so don't worry. But it brought back memories of going through the first time with that party.

I'm going to focus specifically on the battles outside of the goblin fortress as you referenced.

Here are some tips:

Don't worry so much about taking out the war drums, instead worry about the person who goes to beat on the drum. This is always a goblin sorcerer or an orc shaman. Use spells that take advantage of these key character's fortitude weaknesses. If you elminate this key character first, they can't go beat on the drum and summon more worgs, and everyone else is too busy fighting you to worry about the drum after that.

Secondly, the archers up in the towers are a pain. My suggestion is to force the enemy to bring the fight to you instead of always rushing in and bringing the fight to them and making yourselves easy picking. The bridges are narrow and you can clog them up with summons. This will cause a blockage and you'll have the summons in between you and the melee enemies. Beyond the melee enemies, the archers will come down from their towers to try to shoot at you better. Meanwhile your summons melee with their frontlines. Beyond your summons go strategically placed area effect spells. Don't underestimate the spell "Sleep". It is a great tool in Chapter 1. Unfortunately after that, it's not much good. But during chapter 1 it can be the bomb.

The blockage may be so bad, groups of enemies will leave trying to come around from another side. But this takes time and give you more time to beat the ones that stick around and to heal up and prepare for the guys who tried to find an alternate path.

I always take out the north most camp first. They're the easiest. Then I go south and east. And then further east.

 

At low levels(1-3), I don't use melee weapons unless forced to. Give your paladin and everyone else who can use them bows. Then try using the run-around-in-circles tactic. Another excellent tactic that I invented myself is the "draw-out". When aproaching a group of enemies, take only one of your characters and go only untill you see one of them(or as few as possible), then run away back to your waiting party and anything chasing you should be easy pickings. Later on in the game this can be even more effective when fighting large groups of enemies at a time. Have your rouge run straight into the midst of the enemy and then run back towards your party but stop when your rouge is in range for a spellcaster to drop a nice little fire ball. They will all most likely be attacking your rouge, he can use his evasion skill to avoid damage from your fireball. Cast multiple fireballs and any other damaging area of effect spells(like 'Snillocs snowball swarm') in the same manner and you'll have taken out the lot of them with very little or possibly even no hit point loss!

A word of advice concerning your Aasimar paladin: Make sure that if you currently have a wisdom below 16 that you add ability points to wisdom as you get them every four levels untill it reaches 16.(you have to have a wisdom of 10+whatever level spell you want to cast)

[ April 24, 2003, 19:26: Message edited by: Kovalis Darkfire ]

 

The game is hard. You need a number of tacticts to get something out of it. Im really troubeling with this game

 

Don't let this phase get you down, I found it to be THE most trickey sequence - especialy the 3rd camp. By contrast I breezed through the final battle with no reloads and a loss of only ~30HP to the whole party.
Assasinate the drummers with conventional & magic missiles, use 'Animated Dead' to block the bridges and sleep the archers. For one of them I sent an invisible fighter across to stand next to the drum and take down the drummer.
Monks come into their own later in the game so no need to give up on them entirely.

 

I destroyed all drums this way:

Little sneaky halfling (of course hidden) founds a place, where nobody sees him and he can see a drum. Then he takes his nifty bow and uses it with some arrows. I used only common arrows without any special abilities.

I don't know if this was intended, but there is a such "nice" place for every drum.

Of course, my favorite class is rogue - and it is also a class of this little sneaky halfling.

After destroying the drums it was an fight of middle difficulty.