Sorcerer spell combos in HoF

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I just dont belive what i just discovered!

It's so marvelous!
Here's the trick:
You need a two arcane spellcasters. One with Fireshield, preferably both activated at the same time. This guy bravely strides in an area occupied by the worst HoF meleers, wearing no other protections except for these fireshields. The other spellcaster follows him in, not attracting any attention, if he does, have invisibility ready in case. So, when the time is right and most of the enemies are up close on the Fireshielded one, cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on him with the other mage and get the hell out of there

So, the first mage isnt invisible, everyone are attacking him and getting big damage in return (d6+your lvl fire damage + d6+your level damage) for every hit they make. Considering you get 4th level spells at lvl 7(wizards) or 8(sorcerers) that makes 16-26 damage per hit for wizards and 18-28 damage for sorcerers. Having Spirit of flame or Aegis of Rime helps out as well. There's no saving throw and you can be sure they'll get hurt every time with their ridiculous BAB.
Otiluke's Resilient Sphere lasts 3 rounds+1/level and fireshields last 1 round/level. Not that terribly much, but with those many attacks the monsters have, it can do a fair deal of damage.
The nasty thing is that while you're in effect of Otiluke's Sphere you cant reactivate your Fireshields, nor do anything else. Also, when the Sphere goes out and if there's still monsters around, you're in a bit of a trouble
It's doubtful though, since you can blast the area with your other spellcasters all you want.

It offers another way of dealing with baddies in HoF, besides hiding behind Animated Dead. Which i like

Right, i just discovered this one, i'm hoping you folks have any other ones?
(not to mention hoping i'm not rediscovering an old trick and making a fool of myself )

EDIT:
Of course, you can always do it with only one sorcerer, just cast the Fireshields first and then the Sphere. That's me, not realising the obvious

[ July 16, 2004, 16:28: Message edited by: Gothmog• ]

 

Err, this is pretty cheasy, but still I give you credit for thinking of this. I don't think you're the first however, because something similar is described in the JUPP-document en the Cheap Tactics section.

 

Just checked. Yea, it's actualy the same, except for the Fireshield.
Abusing AI. Heh, any better description of something being cheesy?
Aye, it is, no doubt about it. but for now i'm not worried about it since i'm fighting goblins and they're too stupid to notice that anyway. I guess it'll be the same for Orcs... and for just about any other monster. How intelligent are they anyway to attack you who has the reload button, hmm?

Anyway, i'd like to hear of any more. (i'm playing 3 lvl1 sorcerers through HoF and i'm pretty much of a n00b concerning the more advanced survival/killing techniques, thats why )

 

The AI in IWD2 is horrible. A lot of enemies are programmed to keep after one PC till they drop, so you're actually wasting your fireshields. What you do is after you've got them to lock onto a single target, cast the sphere and have the rest of your party attack with ranged weapons. As long as they're not too close, the enemies wont go after them. Works for maybe 90% of the opponents you'll face.

 

Aye, i agree the AI is pretty bad and very unlogical at times.
I'm nozt wasting my Fireshields though, not in a million chances. Starting in HoF. Two attacks at most. The best ranged weapon is Heavy crossbow and the opponent has about 100HP. Now, there are about 15 of these goblins swarming on the PC. Sphere lasts 3+1/level rounds that makes it 10 at the level i'm at right now. So there's absolutely no way you can shoot them down. More likely you wont even shoot one down to death.
May work in the normal mode, though even there by the time you reach lvl8 required to cast the Sphere enemies will probably have too much HP to be shot in those few rounds.

 

I think there is one drawback there. Character enclosed in Otilukes Sphere does not gain XP for killing enemies. All XP goes to other party members. This way your mage will be getting less XP than other party members.

Anyone noticed this ? Yes you could enclose a summoned biest within this sphere. But I don't remember if fireshields are selfcast only - as I don't use them

 

Aye, it seemed a bit strange to me how one of the characters suddenly has 10000XP less than the others
Fireshields are self-cast only. And well that they are, what a fighter one could create, putting both Fireshields on him. Sphere can be cast on anyone naturaly.

 

The AI in IWD2 is extremely annoying. I have two characters with pretty high AC, so they are virtually never hit and two characters with really low AC. It is very annoying when they come after the latter two, because I can't use them then, because I have to run away... :S

I guess it makes sense though to go after people you can actually hit, but I don't think this is a case of good AI.

 

When there are large groups of monsters and you send your decoys in to attract attention, not all the creatures can reach them. Thus if they are attacked by anyone else they will shift their attention to this new threat. This is why your low AC guys are being attacked. Dont let your weak arcane caster like sorcerer throw fireball or other stuff before the monsters have swarmed around your decoy or else they will go for your sorcerer.

The AI in IWD II really is pahetic. During the Lost Followers quest the dead monk turned onto my Zombie Lord and wouldn't let go. Needless to say, I had all the time in the world to get rid of the others before turning my attentions towards him. I disrupted him.

@Gothmog:
So the charecter within the resilient shell gets no XP for the kills? Then what cheat are you using now?

 

One of the worst thins IMO is that you appearantly can't hit monsters that are walking away. I think that my characters should be able to strike while walking, because now if a monster runs away there is almost no possibility for a melee character to hit him.

 

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere is the ultimate cheesy spell in IWD2. I used it extensively to kill dragons, as the dragon would just attack the character protected by ORS, while my other party members hacked the beast to pieces.

 

In my current game one of my favorite combos is mass call lightning and mass static charge with an invisible druid. (so you need a druid and an arcane spellcaster)
Another one: the animate dead summons who block the monsters and the sorcerer who cast wilting on them.