Question about my party of once-and-future paladins

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Rogue, rouge, rooge, ruuge.... its all the same!
Well Gray I summoned six undead and mass hasted, then when guardians were summoned I sent my rouge in with the undead and got the speelcasters out of there. I threw down a Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on my rogue when his HP was low and started bombarding with every area effect spells I could and with Acid Sphere (not sure if thats the name) and when my rouge got free of the spell most of the enemies were dead so it turned into a hit and run tactic with my rouge..... and that was about it really! Tons of potions are a great help, and circle of blades spell scroll if you have it... thats all the advice I can give.

 

No, they're not. One is a thief, one is a colour, and the other two are gibberish.

The Holy Avenger fight rules. It's one of the best fights in the game.

 

so it is.... didnt even think about it being a color.... oh well!!!

 

Just reached the Fields of Slaughter and took out the orc encampment. My rouge -- I mean, rogue -- is flying high; he's a Rog 14 / Pal 2, armed with the Holy Avenger and Brilliant Sure Striking Short Sword +5, has well-balanced stats, 7D6 flanking damage, and slices through anything while Hasted. The rescue of Nicodemus was ridiculously easy. Rogue-paladins rule the world! (Well, except against rogue-clerics, but I don't have any in this party.)

The fight against the Lost Followers was not as tough as I'd expected. I summoned six undead and gave them the Stoneskin/Mass Haste treatment; all survived the combat. Both the wizard and the dwarven fighter had insta-kill powers at the opening; the wizard's Horrid Wilting would toast my party, while the fighter hit my rogue for 88 points of damage (!) on the first strike. So, I aimed all my attackers against the wizard, while encasing the fighter in a Resilient Sphere (after a Malison and Lower Resistance). Then everyone converged on the cleric, then the other fighter, then the monk, then the archer...and finally took out the dwarven fighter after his sphere melted. And now I have my precious Holy Avenger!

It was also nice that everyone in my party was given that +1 STR/WIS boost. Seems that even paladins get Christmas gifts. Useless for my sorcerers since I'm going to boost their CON, not STR at level-up...but hey, it's the thought that counts.

 

Well its finally over at last... until I decide to go through HoF mode or start another odd party like that. Maybe Rogue 10/ Druid X or something... not sure yet.. or if I have time!
So I hated the Field of Fire or what that place was called with the time loop! pain in the ass. After that I moved through the field of slaughter with ease and although my Rogue died at on of the first bosses I kept pushing through and finally after that was done I went back to Kuldahar to resurect my rogue. After that came the Sever Hand and there was only 2 difficult battles there and that was Xvim and the final battle. Xvim I had to try and keep my Rogue alive and just send electric spells at him untill finally he dropped, and at that point I had no spells left that were any good at this point.
Just before the finaly battle I checked my inventory and noticed that my retardedly powerdul rogue had no armor on and that I had none that he could use effectivly, but with an dex of 25 and AC of 33 there wasnt much need for any armor. I went in to the final battle rested and buffed (after my first time I got haked down in seconds). Sent my Rogue in and let everyone pile up on him as everyone was ignoring the rest of the party because they were under invisibility spell and they ran to one corner. When they were beating my Rogue I threw a Otilukes Resilient Sphere on him and the just kept at it whilst my sorcerers just kept throwing Acid Storm, Chain Lightining, Delayed Blast fireball and Skull Trap one after another. When most of the enemies were dead I threw in a Dispell Magic to take care of some of Isair and Madea's protections, and before they massed charmed my rogue I got him with the Sphere spell again.

After they teleported to the fountain I wasted no time in following them and I laid waste to them and their summons. I cast Dominate on the Frost Giants they summoned and turned them against them whilst I cast the rest of my spells on the twins and let my rogue hack away at them and before I knew it they were dead.... all in all an easy fight compared to some other ones which drove me up the wall!!!

Finally done, but I cant get enough of this game. It just draws me back over and over again.... just crazy. Hint: Malison and emotion Despair was very helpfull, and stock up on health potion like never before. That Xvim had some nasty resistances. Lightning was the only spell that could hurt him and top of that the bastard level drains like its going out of style! Area effect spells are key to sucsess towards the last 2 fights. And if you have any Mavalons Rage scrolls let your Rogue enjoy them! Good luck!!!

 

I always find it interesting when people approach the final battle without resorting to the Protection from Magic scrolls. I still found them to be the easiest way to settle those damn Twins.

I didn't even know such a multiclass was possible. I thought there was some sort of alignment restriction.

 

I knew I was holding onto that scroll for a reason! Oh well!
The multi classing is possible if you go paladin then rogue after, but you cant proceed with paladin class once you start rogue.

 

Congratulations, Darkstrike! My proverbial hat's off to you. Once I'm done with my game (haven't touched it since the 2nd, alas), maybe we can start a new challenge. I'm thinking of making a party of evil rogue-multiclasses: a rogue-cleric, rogue-druid, rogue-fighter, rogue-wizard, and rogue-barbarian. I'll post it if/when the game begins, or you're welcome to start your own!

Rogue-paladin is possible in 3E because they removed the alignment restriction in 2E against Lawful Good rogues. Actually, it's even legal to start as a rogue, add paladin levels, and then return to roguery. You just can't go back to adding paladin levels once you've stopped. Which, incidentally, is as dumb as that rule against Lawful Good thieves; and almost as dumb as the rule against Lawful bards. Now a bardic-paladin, THAT would top everything!

 

Well Ive started the party you suggested and they are all human again. This wont be as straight forward as this time around so it might be even more interesting!! You can go ahead and set up a post and what not as I wont have time this week to do anything but start the party!

[ January 11, 2006, 17:42: Message edited by: Darkstrike ]

 

in the complete adventurer there is a feat that lets you be a bardic palidin. Maby you should have that modded in it would be sweet! The feat is called Devoted Performer.

 

if only I could mod....or should I say if I had the patience to mod another game after what happened to Starcraft modding that I was doing!

 

Heh, dont worry about it. I think all the feats are hardcoded anyways, as well as favored classes, and xp penalties. so im not certain you could have added that feat without either sourcecode, or writing your own new from scratch iwd2.

 

There's a workaround, raptor...the Weimer's Ease-of-Use mod has something that removes the alignment requirements from the classes. So you really can multiclass a bard and paladin together; and, if you feel queasy, you can use Dalekeeper to remove a feat (or take a worthless feat like "Toughness") and pretend you'd taken Devoted Performer.

 

As quoted from the "Words of Mad Monkey".

Yeah, thats a posibility, but it feels "wrong" to mess with the alignment restrictions !

 

I don't see what's so wrong with having a Lawful bard. How many great artists throughout history have created works, for good or bad, in service to state and society? And I don't just mean in Civ 4.

On a more serious note: my beleaguered party is stuck on the penultimate battle atop the tower. It's a problem of placement -- the half-dragon delegation is in front of the party and the Legion escort is behind, and my casters can't escape being targeted. The normal "cheap" solution -- summoning a bunch of Stoneskinned undead -- doesn't work, because the game gets rid of all your summons before the battle begins.

My characters are buffed to the max -- Stoneskin, Mass Haste, Elemental Barrier, and Restore Hope. And in the opening rounds, I can thresh the enemy ranks with an Acid Storm, Cone of Cold, Malison, Slow, and Chaos. But it's just not enough! Those darn Slayer Knights of Xvim resist everything I throw at them, and they rip apart my light-armor rogue-paladin. He's got an unhasted AC of 39, but it's still not enough.

Granted, it MIGHT be enough if I broke down and started using those Resurrection and Raise Dead scrolls I've been collecting. But I promised never to use them (see my opening posts) and I ain't gonna start now.

Any suggestions, Darkstrike et al.? Help!

 

Do you have any Holdfast arrows? HF arrows are the best anti-SKoX weapons in the game. Zap with a HF arrow, then let a summons attack them, while you pummel the SK's with ranged weapons.

Do you have any characters with Holy Word and/or Symbol of Hopelessness? Greater Command would probably be useful as well. I know that these won't affect the SK's but they can affect the others.

My usual tactics here are to try to stun as many enemies as possible immediately, use HF arrows to prevent the SK's from moving, have a tank or 2 deal with those enemies that are still mobile, have a spell caster summon up a little help, try to have another of my characters really work over the Banite cleric, who has the potential to be a major pain in the butt, if he can start casting.

With other parties, I've used Mass Dominate to even the odds. There's nothing like using enemy troops to attack the Slayer Knights. It's a win-win. MD'd troops die at the hands of the SK's, less work for me. The MD'd troops kill the SK's, less work for me. And in the end, whichever side survives, they're heavily wounded.

 

Mass dominate, plenty of high level summons, buffed to the max really help here. There is no reason to blast away on these guys, little effect them So have your spell castters stand back and continually buff. Especially area effect spells. Even bless helps here. Don't forget if you MD, these new helpers are not buffed like everyone else, so throw out a couple of symbols of hope or recitations. Chech the statis of the knights, once they are weaken down, then power word stun, no save allowed (other than their SR). It holds them off while your troops get a few clean hits on them. This battle is the best reason for Executioner's Eyes!!

 

GGhoul, I agree that this is a great battle for ExEyes. Still, while you are correct in observing that the close quarters of this particular battle make the generic nuking tactics useless, that doesn't mean that there aren't alternative close quarters offensive spellcasting options. As you mentioned, Mass Dominate is a great one. Also, Symbol of Hopelessness and Holy word are great options. Wail of the Banshee is great here, since it only affects enemies.

Also, there's no reason you can't dump a Skull Trap on top of the Banite cleric. he's just far enough behind the lines (assuming that you didn't send in one of your own characters to hit him in melee) that you can hit him with a ST and quite likely hit a couple other enemies to boot.

This is a particularly great battle for Will-based spells, since you'll likely get a large portion of the enemy with'em.


I like starting this battle with a Holy Word from my cleric, since it will quite likely stun every enemy, except the SK's. (Note, you have to be careful with HW if you have non-good characters in your party, since it will stun them too, IIRC.)

At the same time, I like to cast either Sym O' Hopelessness or Mass Dominate to disable a big chunk of the enemy force, while I have a chance to cast the spell, since most will by Holy Word stunned.

Generally speaking, with judicious use of Will based spells, you can wreak considerable havoc in the enemy's ranks in this close quarters battle.

 

Thanks to the three of you for your excellent ideas! Dragon diplomats beware!

My four sorcerers only know L7 spells, alas, since two levels were sacrificed in their wild and crazy days of youth when they flirted with being paladins. But, I've hoarded scrolls all game long and probably have those you've mentioned, and more. I guess now's the time to use 'em!

That's a great idea about the Holdfast arrows, too. I've hoarded those as well, since I burned all my other material to buy hundreds of +5 Arrows, seeing as you can't take your gold with you to the next world. (There's a moral there somewhere...)

 

GM, Holdfast Arrows are greatly underappreciated by many people... until you start using them. They are almost the ultimate anti-Slayer Knight tool.

One thing tho'. Use them VERY carefully. While they do cause some damage, don't waste them for this purpose. Don't just point a HfArrow armed archer at a SK and forget about him. Hit the one SK with one arrow then move to another SK, or switch to another type of arrow for damage production.

Also, I strongly suggest limiting the number of HF arrows you even put in the archer's active quiver. That is, say you have 100 HF arrows. Only put perhaps 5-10 in his active quiver. The last thing you want to do is to burn thru 20 or 30 HF arrows because you forget about about your archer.


I don't remember the exact composition of your party GM, but the last couple of times (even in HOF) I;ve played the half-dragon diplomat battle, I've started fully buffed and totally whupped butt big time. So much so, once, I even just did a quick save and headed back down the stairs to meet the twins without any rest, healing, or re-buffing.

With the right spells, tactics, and a little luck, your party can give these turkeys a major butt-whupping that you'll be proud of.