Tactics for the NE drum outside Horde Fortress?

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Since people are giving advice for a specific minor encounter in another thread, I thought I'd ask for a particular encounter I find to be particularly difficult. It doesn't seem like it's intended to be a super-tough battle like the Shaegarn Bridge or the Palisade, but I always have trouble and often have to reload.

Outside the Horde Fortress there is one druid called Trugnuk that casts "call lightning" that guards the key to the fortress and the final war drum. The approach to the drum is trapped such that you can NOT sneak up on it. Trying with a stealthed rogue will set off the traps and reveal his position, causing him to be swamped. Protection from lightning doesn't seem to help much against that call lightning spell's massive damage.

What tactics do you use to best destroy the drum without getting swamped by hordes of enemies?
I know I'm missing something to make the battle easier. Something to let me take on only one group at a time without having to rush accross the bridge to the drum.

 

I always sneak a thief up there, with a potion of invisibility, disarm the traps, drink the potion and run back to my party, somewhere south of the bridge. I have never had to fight both groups. Just the wolf-riders 1st. Then on to Trugnuck.

Or I will cast Animate Dead, making a wall in front of the bridge, set off the alarm and let m undead melee, as I pummel them with ranged attacks, again, Trugnuck never comes to that fight...

 

I use pretty much the same tactic as BoV, and use invisibility instead of sneaking. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the drum can be destroyed with ranged weapons/spells from the southern side of the chasm without enemies seeing it.

 

It can be destroyed that way too, but it will bring all of the enemies down on you...

 

The War Drums are a potential XP goldmine, as I just recently realized (read below). You also get bonus XP for descending to the warrens without alerting all the ward-drum-camps (leaving them unharmed too). Same story for advinging to the next warren level. I believe an archer can reach Trugnuuk's War Drum from south of the ravine there. As for the traps: send your thief in invisible. he can detect and disarm all the traps on all the bridges without becoming visible. Use an Invisibility spell, but even a hiding rogue might pull it off before he becomes visible.
You only need to attack Trugnuuk's camp to acquire the key. When you got rid of the horde, return to the drum camps and let them sound the alarm. Goblin Worg Riders will attack you every minute or so, it helped me to gain about 2 levels for my 6 man party. If you save then reload, the atacks stop. Imagine how many levels you could gain if you did this for a couple of gaming sessions, alerting a new drum camp every time? Woohoo!

 

Yep, it sure can -- because that's what I often do.

 

Like every enemy caster in the early game that Trugnuk guy can be a pain, still, if you're lucky the lightning will target someone with Evasion. I believe the key is to strike swiftly and to avoid getting surrounded by trolls and worg riders (they will follow you around). There is some good advice in this thread. First disable the drum and then try and hit Trugnuk as hard as possible, once he's gone things should become much easier.

Once you got the bonus XP you can get rid of them of course.

 

How do you disarm the trap without being spotted? I thought using the detect or disarm buttons automatically disabled your stealth. I haven't tried invisibility, but I will next time I play (I don't currently have a game going on at that spot). As does setting off the trap.

Maybe I can see if I have an old save point near there.

 

Although you stop trying to actively hide after you press detect/disarm buttons, you'll notice that your character remains translucent, and the invisibility icon is still active. So your character is still hidden!. Depending on how well you can Hide and Move Silently (and how many enemies are looking), this effect can remain active for many rounds after you stop hiding. With some luck, it's enough time to detect and disarm the traps, and leave the area before you become visible. The only rogue skills that will dispel invisibility, are Open Locks, Pick Pockets, and Sneak Attack of course.
Even setting off a trap shouldn't make your charactter visible, if I recall correctly.

 

I first ensure that I took out the other two drums and surrounding monsters first. Once I did this, I take out the drum with my archers. Once the drum is gone, it is easy to take out the rest of the monsters in front of the gate.

What I do is approach from the west side. Don't use the bridge across from the gate. Use the bridge on the west. When you approach, have most of your party stay behind. Then take one guy who draws out a few monsters at a time and lead them back to your main group to be slaughtered. Keep repeating this. Ensure that only a few monsters come at a time.

When you get to Trugnuk (he walks back and forth so you may get him early), send everyone to attack him and take him out as fast as you can. Wizards and Sorcerers should use Chromatic Orb to stun him so he cannot get spells off. It's best to have some good archers to disrupt his spells while your melee guys close. You should be able to take him out before he casts his call lightning. After that, the rest of the monsters is easy.

I don't bother disarming the traps. I either sneak across and take the damage and heal later or use my monk or wizard with Mirror Image to absorb the damage.

 

Taking out all the drums isn't wise, as you miss out on quest XP when you advance to the warrens. Try to leave the other 2 drum outposts unharmed.

 

I guess I missed this quest as I usually slaughter everything to be thorough. What you do get for leaving drums unharmed and how do you complete this quest? (Spoiler tags would be appropriate.)

 

Spoiler

http://weidu.org/IWD2-QuestSkillList.txt
[AR3002.BCS] AR3002
You have gained experience by using your skills to sneak deeper into the Goblin Warrens and only alerting two of the camps. 700
You have gained experience by using your skills to sneak deeper into the Goblin Warrens and only alerting three of the camps. 525
You have gained experience by using your skills to sneak deeper into the Goblin Warrens and only alerting one of the camps. 1050
You have gained experience by using your skills to sneak deeper into the Goblin Warrens without alerting any of the camps. 1575

 

Is it actually possible to get into the warrens without alerting any of the camps?

Anyway, thanks for the info about the quests.

 

I don't recall seeing that message, but I've managed to get into the fortress without alerting the NW camp. Heck, a couple times I've forgotten to slaughter it.

I don't see how it's possible to get there without alerting one or two. The traps on the bridge that reveal your stealthed thief prevent that. Although I'm going to start a new game with a party specialized in stealth just to try it. I'll get back to you in a few days as it will take that long to get to that point.

 

I only noticed it the 3rd run-through myself. Setting off a trap never revealed my rogue, whether hidden or invisible. After taking out Trugnuuk, you can sneak past the patrols with his key. Then you leave the camps in the warrens alone too.

 

Setting off traps do not reveal my monk who uses mirror image. I know that if you try to disarm the trap, it will reveal your character.

 

Maybe it's due to mods I use, but disarming a trap never breaks my rogue's active hiding, nor turns him visible. Everyone should just try this out for themselves, because it's a great advantage if it works for you.

 

It's not the camps in the outside area that counts, it's the ones INSIDE the warrens. Figuring out how to get through the passworded door without killing anything first is a big part of the fun - and for once, rather rewarding.

 

During this replay of IWD2 I notice a few things

The drums outside of the fortress (with Trugnuk and all) are not unlimited source of XP and loots. Maybe there's a change somewhere in the patch of mod, I dont know, but there's only 4 wave of duo riders appear for each drum. Ie a total of 8 unit each drum, a total of 24 for all three drums. With 400 Xp per, that was a total of 9600 for a party average level of 5 to share 6-way. Maybe at higher average level there's more, but in that case the xp per kill reduced so I am not sure it's worth to raise average party level.
(the next reduce would be 375xp per kill, as I raised average level one notch for the next dungeon and test it there. At the highest threshold of level 7, that would reduce the xp per kill waaaaay lower than that. My guess is probabbly 350.)

I methodically advance each drum one by one, only leave for the next when the shaman drumming no more riders. By exhausting shamans that way, we wont get overwhelmed despite the penchant of dropping riders on our softer back rank.

Trugnuk got about 3 Call Lightning charge, and he's stuck at that camp. By using a rogue to shoot at the outermost guards, which is the goblin on the platform, then run away, we can draw most of them out and into our waiting ambush from the east, instead of advance through the central bridge. Trugnuk 's Call Lightning script can be disabled by rogue advance to bait him into casting it, then run out of sight, repeat until he's out of charges. Even so, there's a chance of a hit .