The number of enemies per room is nuts.
GamingFreak
Member Posts: 639
Seriously, it's like they decide to send army after army of enemies after you in fights, many of which require a different strategy. I mean, I like it, it's refreshing since this *IS* my first time playing IWD, but holy crap; I'm used to like, 8 enemies per fight max from the BG1-2 days (until ToB generally). There was some fights I really couldn't beat without basically cheesing kiting because of the sheer amount.
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EDIT: I also wanted to point out that ever since getting stuck in Kresselack's Temple early on in the game, I renamed my dungeon save file to "I Hate This Place"; and made it my official dungeon save file since.
I already ragequited
the proper way to do it is to scout first, then cast haste on your party and rush the enemy to in order to get a good foothold and prevent being jumped by other appearing or incoming enemies. if you have free action on the party you can cast grease and web right in the middle of the fight. also, picking enemies one by one still works but it's very slow and dull.
areas before that are sorta simple and straightforward (except for the trolls maybe) so i have a feeling you're not complaining about them.
One thing you can do with a bard is pull a few melee enemies then run around so they can't catch you. You can do this and sing at the same time.
Set thief traps before battle. Use Grease/Web/Entangle to slow down monsters, then cast AoE spells like Fireball, Spike Growth, Cloudkill etc. Horror and CC work well with slowing effects. Glitterdust, Curse and Greater Malison to make the enemy more susceptible to your spells and attacks. Turn Undead against masses (Cold Wights... Damn them to hell!). Pick off stragglers with ranged attacks.
Sometimes you can't use the environment to your advantage, then you have to reduce the enemy's asset of sheer numbers.
It's cheesy, but otherwise you'll get your party wiped.
Just sayin'. Probably you know it already.
@Selkyra Yes, I learned real quick that baiting enemies around corners or out of their comfort-zone rooms was key to winning a lot of fights. One such room where it was filled with Yuan-Ti using various magical arrows was making me pull my hair out, until I thought of a way to bait them out of the room by aggroing them with my weak character (sorcerer) then jumping them as they left the room in pursuit (so they could get a better aim). Still feels really cheesy.
That's the difference.
Even if mages and monsters get no enhancements. Even if you get bonus experience from insane in IWDEE.
With whole bunch of enemies focusing on your weakest character and your spell casters, it's completely unplayable.
Thing with IWD right now is that even on HoF 90% of fights are just a lot of guys clobbering you. There is fairly little special abilities involved, maybe some mob needs +1 weapons to hit or causes disease on touch but that's about it. Spellcasters are a complete joke, and without SCS-style pre-buffing they are absolutely trivial to keep interrupted (even Yxunomei can just be solo'd by your archer while you mop up the other goons, she'll never get a spell off).
Not that I would call myself a "pro", but my party had no troubles with her at all. They've had much more problems before that. For example, with the many trolls and priests near Mother Egenia. That had forced me to turn off AI for almost every encounter and even retreat a few times to avoid being overwhelmed by too many enemies with no spells to summon allies.
My party is losely inspired by the pregenerated one, .. just that I may have used different races, alignments, sex and initial weapon skills: Undead Hunter, Berserker, Cleric/Ranger, Fighter/Thief, Mage, Bard. The Paladin maybe messed up a bit, because I had started with sword'n'shield style only to notice that I might like a two-handed weapon fighter, too. The berserker is lots of fun, and I even enjoy a throwing and returning axe for some encounters.
So far I'm mostly worried about the many times I need to return to some special or safe resting place and about the many dungeon levels that don't add anything to the story.
I ground out my 4 char. party from level one in Heart of furry mode... terribly under-powered to level 7... grinding up to the ogre cave.
Imported to HOW to finish and came back 13, 13/14, 13/14 , 13 cuz the button says HOF mode recommended for parties of at least level 13. Hmm... now its a jog.
Caught flatfooted, my sorceress casts spirit armor on kensai/thief and monk. (wow no aggro on caster)
My Fighter / cleric tanks as sorceress casts summons, then any crowd control (like web) ect. kensai chops at edges, oops... even with spirit armor my monk occasionally gets dog piled... so run away and pot. my healer must keep tanking if at all possible. Monk slides back in at perimeter. Sorceress (still no aggro) uses Dragon breath on archers not being dealt with. Finally offensive spells.
First time with this class... like:) What can you say about a girl that can light her own burps... I obviously I hide the torches on bean night!
Ok, so maybe very difficulty, or as you said re-roll. But your sorcerer may have time to memorize the spells you like.
Rule number 1... play to the style you enjoy best
Honestly with so many spells that a sorcerer needs, I'd say spirit armor is in a very low priority list, just like haste, what with how it fatigues you faster.
I like to have things like true sight, dispel magic, and other utility spells.
Summon monsters... and my favorite until I get extra planer and time stop... duntadudaahhh... Wyvern call
In black pits when in doubt call a blue angel and spam wyverns
Anything else in "nuts" mob numbers - do you want it to be overwhelmingly challenging? Or, do you want it be "somewhat" challenging at most? Give all of your characters the "triple play" - 18's in the first three "physical" stats. 4 or 6 characters, it doesn't matter. Put the "difficulty" slider on "insane", or at least do so after about 3rd level or so, when your "triple play" toons have enough hit points (more than about 20 or 30 each) to withstand a few hits.
Watch your 4 or 6 member party roflstomp the game on "insane" difficulty.
The starting stats in the first three attributes are everything in this game. That's your true difficulty control. Want to roflstomp? Give your toons the "triple play". Want to have challenge? It increases for every point below 18 that you give your toons on those critical three stats.
Your attribute decisions are *the* difficulty control for any Inifinity Engine game. If you want challenge, don't create Kryptonian Supermen and Supergirls. If you find being mobbed that the game is roflstomping *you*, then create a party with the "triple play", for all party members.
Your level of bang-head-against -monitor frustration or roflstomping the game is completely up to you, according to how you assign the "triple play" stats to your toons.