What was your most difficult battle?

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Well, true, I haven't tried HoF. What are their attack bonuses?

But with at least 12 spells that do at least 40 damage, you can deal around 500 points of damage to ALL creatures surrounding you in 12 rounds.

I did it in the Draider caves with my sorceress only, and only 8 Sunfires (didn't have Malavon's Rage then). Killed all driders and all mushrooms in one go, and they were pretty tough guys those driders. They were beating on her like hell, all surrounding her, and that's how it should be done, because you can't hope to use stuff like delayed fireball from far away; they'll close in. Unless I can get her the Evasion feat, which I can't any more, then I'd use Delayed Fireball like Sunfire, targeted at her own feet. (I actually made her run around all the cave making sure they will all come to mamma. When they were all close enough, she started blasting them). Also I have the pause set to pause when a spell is cast. So as soon as she finished casting one, she cast the next. No waste of time is allowed.

The question in HoF probably is how to survive 12 rounds without losing all your hp and not being disabled with a spell.
Spell immunity is almost no problem. And I can now get her AC up to around 43 + Stoneskin.

I'm sure it's tough in HoF. I'll let you know when I try it Perhaps it's wishful thinking.

Maybe I'll make another sorcerer with Evasion:
Monk 1 (evasion + saves)
Paladin 1 (saves with CHA + weapons and shields)
Sorcerer X
Aasimar (CHA...) or Drow (CHA + Spell Res.)

[ November 17, 2002, 06:56: Message edited by: Quint ]

 

Quint, believe me, with a +29 BAB for starters, as in lowly goblins, and it only gets worse...

12 rounds is far too long into the future. My main barbarian character has over 500 hp and he is shredded by monsters in less than 2 rounds. I am not joking...

I can't see how your character could get the sunfires off let alone kill anything with them. How are you going to prevent being hit? You can't. There is absolutely no way you can become immune to being hit like in BG2. So it won't work.

In 12 rounds your summoned dudes can do all the ripping for you.

In future try HOF and see it is literally a nightmare for the regular strategies that you develop in a normal game. Trusty fireball and sunfire will simply not be used...

Sad but true...

All the strategies that I've read of and used relegate the traditional tactices useless...

Best of luck...you're gonna need it in HOF...

 

Quint,
seems you must make now your monk with 70 AC See if they can hit that.....

 

I agree whith Khazraj. Tactics in HoF are completely different. The only time my sunfire came in handly was with slow moving undead and slimes, oozes etc...you can just keep running ahead of them and light another. The only thing that works in HoF consistently is creating walls of summoned monsters and attacking from behind them. Even that strategy is almost useless in open outdoor situations like Wandering Villiage/Fell Wood when enemies run around your summoned creatures...
(I also find myself wishing for more spells that target multiple enemies , such as Chain Lightning. Area effect spells are a waste if you are hurting your summoned crits.)

Anyone else find the Hook Horror caves in HoF a major PITA? I'll reach my summoning limit trying to protect both sides of my party...

 

Scott, you are not kidding the Wandering Village and the Duergar Caves were freakin tough in HoF. But just wait until you get to the Drider Caves, they are just as fun since it seems like there is a completely endless supply of the buggers (just like the hook horrors).

Did anyone have any luck playing more than the one required match in Battlesquares in HoF?

Also, has anyone tried the Lost Followers yet in HoF? They were bad enough in normal, I can't wait to see how impossible that battle has become.

 

I didn't even try the battle squares this time, after being really bored the first time. I won the initial battle pretty easily with my Shield Dwarf Barbarian 2/Paladin 3/ Fighter 16...he's got STR 25 and AC 31 without any spells cast on him (!), so I buffed him up with Aura of Vitality, Haste, Greater Shield of Lathander, and Exectioners Eyes...but as those protections wear off...too boring.
I've also found that the enhanced HoF Weapons are not even that great (not worth fighting for!). I'm still using most stuff from normal mode, except a couple sweet items from the store in Targos.
On another note, I'm glad the Drider caves are difficult, because they were a piece of cake the first time! Any advice on the Mind Flayer enclave in HoF?

 

Scott, I recommend animate dead, since the mindflayer's mind attacks don't work on them.

I found that the hardest battle was the battle on top of the War Tower in the Severed Hand, just before you go see Isair and Madae. It took me 4-5 reloads before I realized that my company sucked because they were unrested...so I rested and cleaned up the baddies.
Isair and Madae were pretty easy on my 4th reload, because I realized the trick was to send my company into the left corner to avoid the summonings, then finger of death all the people I could. Then I sent my rogue to sneak attack the mage that's hidden off to the right, and I saw that as soon as the 2 mages were dead, there were no more summonings.

 

I haven't had my game long, and working a fair amount, haven't had much time to play, I'm right past the evil ranger and druid people by Oswald's crashed air ship. Anyways, the toughest fight I say would be with tequog or whatever, for some reason I could not beat him and those darned fire trolls, I never give my characters enough constitution, so they often are only average in the hit point dept. and thus one hit from those darn trolls would kill me sometimes! Argh. Anyways, I just went around behind them and that worked better for some reason. Yequog maybe wasn't as hard.

 

Speaking of Isair and Madae, I don't even want to think about how tough they are going to be in HoF mode. They were pretty darn bad in normal mode and if their hit points and damage dealing are as jacked as everything else-well I am not sure how much being level 28-30 will help...

 

@Khazraj:

Ok, I tried HoF today. Just to see what my sorceress is worth with her Sunfire tactic.

And she walked proudly in those tunnels under the warehouse, assembling all the little goblins together until she had them all nicely surrounding her, while the rest of the team just stayed at the entrance, then she grilled them all to death with just 5 sunfires. There were around 40 goblins plus their 2 or 3 leaders.

She's level 16, was doing anywhere between 40 and 108 fire damage to each of those buggers with every casting (she has the Spirit of Flame feat).

She had 37 AC, was hasted and had Stoneskin. Some time after the 3rd sunfire she started to get hurt, so she cast stoneskin again. She was left with 23 HP from an initial 123. Another time she had 85 points left.

For a much tougher type of monster than goblins in HoF, one could use Web, Slow, Sleep or Chaos to reduce their attacks, reflex throws, etc..

Actually the only tricky thing about this tactic is to avoid having the enemy surround you too quickly and block your path. So you have to zig-zag a bit. And you have to wait for them to catch up with you a little before going to a new position, but not wait too long. When you get to the final place when you want to do battle (preferrable an open area where they can surround you from all sides, so there's place for them all, and the spell can hit all of them), then you wait until they're almost all there before you start bombarding. Stoneskin should protect you during these few seconds.
But even if you don't get all of them gathered at once, you can grill that first bunch, then continue and deal with the remaining in the same way. Just costs a few more spells, and she had 7 sunfire and 6 Malvon's rage.

Edit:
I just realized she wasn't using her Expertise skill So I tried again with 42 AC. They hit her much less often. She didn't need to cast stoneskin again, and was left with 107 hp.

And about the level of those goblins in HoF (we were wondering about that in another thread), they are certainly higher than level 12, because they only get stunned for 1 round from Holy Word.

[ November 28, 2002, 01:51: Message edited by: Quint ]

 

I've only played to as far as chapter 3, and well, my hardest battle was with them ferocious dire wolves at the wandering village at the opening of chapter 3 or something. My party (then) consisted of 1 fighter, 1 paladin, 1 cleric, 1 sorcerer, 1 wizard, and 1 rouge, and man, them wolves seem to appear from nowhere and attack again and again!! But anyway, finally managed to kill them off eventually, after many retries.

 

Quint, I admire you, you are so patient.

All I can think of is that if you have used "only 5" sunfire on them, you would need to rest again pretty soon to stock up again. However, with a party of level 16 characters, they'll destroy goblins pretty fast. I don't know about slowing them down, I've not really been able to do it, webs are junk, sleep and hold are crap, etc, (whine and whinge) but at that point my characters were low level. Anyway, chaos may be good, still need to mash them in melee though.

Try this in HoF for a real hoot, level 1 characters with no ripped or imported equipment, only the "toothpicks" they come with. Then you'll understand my tactics better. (It truly sux, what I did, but if you do it, you have such a nice warm inner glow.... you have permission to vomit now...)

Your tactic is still fine in Targos, but when you get to the orcs and further, like Shaengarne Bridge, Goblin Fortress, all I can say is...
"Good Luck".

I also find it is a rather dangerous tactic if your party is accidently "fried" ... Oh [bleep]...

If you have only a few Summons, eg Boneguards and Greater Werewolf, these creatures are generally immune to the goblins attacks and last for the whole battle and more. The undead will last literally hours and they can live to fight another day.

I've hardly used anything but summons, perhaps I'm a chicken, but 20 orcs all attacking 1 single character for a minimum of 10 damage each more than once per round, is just too much for me to imagine, 'shudder'...

Your call Quint. It's all in fun, and if you find a style or tactic sux, then so what, do whatever you find easiest.

 

Oh, but I never said your tactic sucks, did I? I love summons too.. But I think there's no better feeling than the one I get when my cute sorceress just dances around a level and all those suckers gather around het thinking she's dead meat, then get fried to death a few rounds later. Very embarassing for my other valorous party members too. No one else can do that single-handedly.

Look, I'll go up to shaengarne bridge for your sake (I had decided to stop).
Anyone know a cheat to take me there immediately?

 

I think the hardest one for me would have to have been one of the fights with the Orcs in the beggining. Another would probably be when those werebadgers and stuff showed up...

 

@Quint,
Point is to save the bridge and with the dancing tactic you'll be too late

 

For anyone playing HOF mode ... ALL the goblins are tuff at the begining, heh. Note the "Books" in Ulbrecs house are actually equipable in your quick slots, they are invaluble ... 2 of them. The Worgs I'd imagine for HOF is unbearable, however, I've heard these were a real bear so I used Callubis' staff and invised the party ... got near the edge of camp so I was just outside of the range of the mobs and blasted the drums with flame strikes carefully avoiding monsters ... they don't retaliate if done properly.

 

im playing HoF mode and i just started the ice temple
but i gotta say the hardest battle was the one in the orc fortress, right after you come out from the caves, kinda the last fight before you enter the real fortress.
They have archers, lots of them, goblins, lots of shamans and witched doctors. I had to repeat that f...ing fight like 10 times, spent almost all kind of spells...
i guess the spell that is really working for me is wail of the banshee, i have greater spell focus on necro spells, and i can kill almost anything with this spell.

 

I think my hardest fight was the final battle with Isair and Madae. Although, I found that having enough Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Animate Dead and area effective spells (Horrid Wilting is the best-no evading) make life much easier. The best spell in game is Otiluke's Resilient Sphere...
You can use it on your party members/summons as well as enemies. Either way, it is perfect...

Wail of the Banshee will not kill your own party members as it's description suggests. So, it is really lethal

[ December 30, 2002, 09:48: Message edited by: ANAKHA the ALMIGHTY ]

 

Well, I made it to rank 4, level 2 in the battle squares before I had to use imp. inv. on a pure fighter level 21 (patched HoF with Weimer addons).
Wandering village wolves are very tough as they regenerate to keep a constant 8 until you kill a total of 16, but you can run around. You cannot do this at the top of the fortress. The hooks gather at wherever you retreated from (the rope) and smack you when you return; however, you can go invisible and set up elsewhere; and then have your rogue start on them from behind. But if you try to do this at the fortress, you just run into zillions more of those suckers.
The hosttower mages and the beaster are pretty tough too. There are so many archers and the beaster's spells are tough. He did a banishment on my rogue (bug?). But there is still room to run around.
Isair and Medae are tough. I took out the summoner first. Also, they are susceptible to electricity and lower resistance (but I haven't gotten this far in HoF yet -- doing the squares currently [6,4] and trying to figure out chamber 1 without using my mage).
IaaA

 

personally, the fight wit madae and isair was too easy for me, i didnt have to reload and didnt even bother to kill the summoner till almost the end