Battle Screenshots

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Let's have have a thread to share screenshots of some of the cool/epic/interesting combat encounters experienced in IWD:EE, along with some commentary on how they unfolded!
Maybe this way we can provide each other with some inspiration for trying different party builds and combat tactics.

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I'll start, with some screenshots from my current "Insane Difficulty" playthrough with this party, which just entered Lower Dorn's Deep (and hasn't been through HoW and TotL yet, so I may add more screenshots as I go along):


1)


^ One of the major battles of Dragon's Eye level 2 (in chapter 2), which I consider the most difficult level of the game (not counting boss fights). Even a single Sword Spider can be a threat to the party at this point, and this battle features four of them at once, plus a few Trolls who are quickly drawn to the scene when combat starts, followed by a Bombardier Beetle and even more Trolls joining in after a while (the last group after the screenshot was taken).
I admit that my first attempt at this battle was disastrous, ending in the untimely demise of my heroes and forcing me to reload. So on the second try, I prepared some first-strike crowd control measures: My Bard cast Grease [level 2] (a great spell because it affects more kinds of enemies than Web) and my Fighter/Druid cast Spike Growth [level 3] (which repeatedly damages everyone who remains in the area of effect). As soon as the spiders started appearing in my party's line of sight, the Dragon Disciple [Sorcerer kit] cast Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm [level 2] at them which nicely softened them up some more, the Bard started to provide some party buffs by singing, and everyone else started showering the spiders with missile weapon attacks. When the first two spiders reached my front line, the three warriors switched to melee weapons. When the Trolls arrived, The Dragon Disciple cast a well-placed Skull Trap [level 3] on top of them and the remaining spiders (which worked beautifully - you can see the light-green "taking Magic Damage" effect from it on all the enemies in the screenshot), and the Fighter/Druid cast Thorn Spray [level 4] (casting animation in screenshot). And that was just the first few rounds of the battle... But the rest was mostly routine weapon attacks, and I think a Potion of Fiery Burning to finish off the unconscious trolls and soften up the newly arrived ones.


2)


^ Another application of the same choke-point crowd control tactic, in the opening battle of Dragon's Eye level 4 - this time with Web [arcane, level 2] added for extra down-slowing of enemies and Wall of Moonlight [druid, level 4] added for extra damage to all evil creatures who pass through it (which in this battle, was all of them). I kinda felt sorry for all the fake Eldathyn monks, because by the time they arrived at my side of the Wall of Moonlight, they were all either dead, or close to dead and thus easy pickings for my party equipped with ranged weapons. After the screenshot was taken some Elite Yuan-ti and Trolls did make it through to my party alive, but one after the other and softened up enough so my warriors could dispatch them quickly without taking any damage themselves.
In retrospect, I do admit that using 4 crowd-control spells in this battle was a little excessive... Two of them would have likely sufficed to win it without taking significant damage. But hey, no expense should be spared to rid the realms of evil Yuan-ti cultists who feast on human flesh!


3)


^ My Dragon Disciple [Sorcerer kit], protected by Mirror Image [level 2], making good use of his Breath Weapon [kit ability] against a pack of Yetis in the Frost Giant cave in Wyrm's Tooth (chapter 5), before cowardly sneaking back through the tunnel behind him, and letting the party's melee warriors come in and mop up...

 

If Dragon Disciples got one use of their breath weapon every say 5 levels, I would probably consider using one. One use per day is just not enough IMHO.

 

No-one else wants to contribute screenshots? I'll continue on my own then...


4)


^ Lower Dorn's Deep finally provided some good opportunities for using all those cold damage spells...
Here, my Dragon Disciple [Sorcerer kit] casts Cone of Cold [level 5] against the Salamander King Shikata and three of his minions. One dies from it, the rest are wounded. Luckily they don't move too fast, so the sorcerer managed to run back behind the party warrior's front line after this little stunt...


5)


^ After the battle against Marketh's thieves and mages in Lower Dorn's Deep. Even though I managed to put crowd control spells in place quickly (including Death Fog [level 6]), this was not an easy victory. Getting backstabbed is not conductive to party members' health when they receive double damage from the Insane difficulty setting...
Sorcerer, Bard, and Druid were busy keeping their combat protection spells up, and the Shadowdancer [Thief kit] used his innate "hide in plain sight" ability as often as he could.


6)


^ Another messy battle, against Maiden Ilmadia and her Fire Giants. Casting Mass Invisibility [level 7] on the entire party (including summoned animals) beforehand, made it more manageable though.


7)


^ The mother of all crowd-control-tactics battles. The party's Arcane casters put up three partially overlapping instances of Web [level 2], and then my dwarven Berserker [Fighter kit] ran around the entire room equipped with with the Boots of Speed and Ring of Free Action, got all the undead monsters to target him, and led them into the big Web trap... Then the Sorcerer, Bard, and Druid bombarded them with a multitude of area-of-effect spells that do physical, magical, fire, or acid damage...
Cheesy, you say? Well, I rationalize it by pointing out that they're brainless undead minions who probably would be stupid enough to follow my Fighter straight into a magical web...


8)


^ After the battle. I hope Ilmater is proud.

 

Excellent shots