Lightning bolts, people. Use those potion of absorption or insulation. And if you have druids, don't forget static charge (and call lightning on Burial isle). I find Yxie easy. It would be nice in EE would also restore Yxie to her stats in vanilla IWD before HoW. Immune to weapons below +3 and to most spells. And no weapons of +3 available to buy at that point in Kuldahar.
I feel you, OP. Last night, after the 7th try at Yxonemai failing, I purged all of my saves and deleted the game. About 15 minutes later, I re-downloaded it, but my party of Bard (Skald), Barb, Battleguard, Totemic, Ftr Thief, Wild Mage has been purged to the nether realms. Not sure I'm going to start another run back any time soon. When a game just causes an insane level of frustration, it might be time to do something else for a while. The sad part is, I've beaten the game oodles of times before. Not sure why that fight was so damn hard this time.
Archer makes that fight a piece of cake, 5 APR with magic ammo, she went down in like 3-4 rounds, no losses on my end, fight was super easy, I had a harder time with certain trash mobs then I did her.
This game made me appreciate Fireball a lot more. Honestly I can't wait until I get chain lightning. I want it so badly right now it hurts.
FYI Chain Lightning isn't party friendly in IWD.
It was great in BG2 when you could attack multiple enemies in a crowd without touching your own people. I found it useless in this game.
completely useless...skull trap does more damage, also electric. only thing it's good for is striking enemies approaching in a long column where aoe spells can't reach a lot of them. but that's an almost nonexistent scenario.
if i was to remove a cap from a single spell, chain lightning would be it. after all it's damage does dissipate with subsequent targets so it's already weaker than a normal aoe spell.
Back in the olden days I played the game as a 14 years old shlub with no clue about D&D rules, multi/dualclassing, or about any complex optimization whatsoever - and I still beat the game quite smoothly. The new kits and spells probably make it even more manageable. Ultimately all it really needs is a bit motivation and determination to beat the game.
Hey, let's chase this hooded - and oddly charming - fellow who sings brilliantly, instead of those armoured blokes who are shooting at us. They look dangerous!
skull trap, glyph trap from priest. thief trap is awesome (remember to train) buff spells. summons to the meat grinder just toss them on there. focus on one enemy at time. just wait untill last fight... then you will rage quit.
Yeah I honestly think bounty hunters, casting-focused clerics, and sorcerers with properly selected spells will dominate this game. Bounty Hunters *especially* because of the ability to throw special traps that do more damage (though they lose this in Rogue Rebalancing, they get other cool stuff instead)
@Fardragon If we accept the notion that you need a thief, then a bounty hunter has the advantage of the Force Multiplication of Preparation. Actions taken for free outside of a battle can help in the battle while he does other stuff. Even if each trap only affects one enemy that's still a net gain. Granted that's not exactly "Dominating" it is a nice advantage. If you don't like risking thieves by backstabbing a lot in the crowded battlefields of Icewind Dale being able to do other special stuff helps. That's also a point in favor of Swashbuckler, no backstab but a good backup tank.
The bounty hunter is fantastically effective. Obvious stuff aside, you can back up and chuck traps into big melee balls for good AoE and crowd control without hurting your fighters. Combine that with more typical trap play and ranged weapons with lots of attacks and good damage (heavy crossbow of speed +2 is my current weapon of choice), and the bounty hunter more than pulls his weight.
What does bounty hunters' maze trap actually do? Do they grant experience and loot? I haven't tested it but it sure sounds like a downgrade.
Maze isn't permanent (that would be Imprisonment). The enemy will reappear after a few rounds (how many depends on their INT score), after which you can kill (and loot!) them.
Maze traps are basically used to get rid of enemies while you mop up their friends, then they come back onto an empty battlefield and get mopped up in turn. I believe this effect doesn't allow a save and works against most things, making it quite the potent CC. I personally never really found a need to use an effect like that, but it's available.
i maze enemies in bg2 routinely. it's not only extremely useful (you can use it on a lich for example to get your dispelled protections back), but really fun too with it's *poof* factor
I am finding this game a good mix between difficult(stressful) and fun.... BG was good but I play them now on my tablet and I sometimes forget where I am in the story and all the politics when I play the BG games... Ice wind Dale on the tablet is much more strait forward, I can just turn it on and go and know what I am doing... without having to take a good 10 min to figure out where to go next.
With the Monsters I have found it vital to scout first... especially with my all Dwarven non caster party. I do not have much in the realm of AOE yet (my full cleric has some good AOE vs evil spells) but nothing that can take out a decent horde like fireballs could.
My Assassin and Bounty hunters do most of this... I will get lazy sometimes and move my whole party into the fog... this usually results in my poor dwarves being overrun and killed... though if I scout (especially with my assassin) I can discover weak points, prebuff, and get a strategy.... When I have scouted effectively I usually am able to win most battles on the first try without any losses..... losses always come with misplacement of men and unknown enemies.... as well as bringing in more enemies then needed... A well place poison shot can do wonders when bringing in 1/3 of the horde at a time...
Lightning bolts, people. Use those potion of absorption or insulation. And if you have druids, don't forget static charge (and call lightning on Burial isle). I find Yxie easy. It would be nice in EE would also restore Yxie to her stats in vanilla IWD before HoW. Immune to weapons below +3 and to most spells. And no weapons of +3 available to buy at that point in Kuldahar.
Iirc, there were some, Lonesome Road for one, Giving Star for another. You likely couldn't buy more than 1 of those by then. She was a terror though.
You really need to stack up AoE damage to make it useful, much moreso in HoF (or just use melee). Chain Lightning isn't very strong, but Delayed Blast is nice, especially if an enemy is vulnerable. Cone of Cold is handy, but there aren't as many vulnerable enemies.
Comments
I find Yxie easy. It would be nice in EE would also restore Yxie to her stats in vanilla IWD before HoW. Immune to weapons below +3 and to most spells. And no weapons of +3 available to buy at that point in Kuldahar.
if i was to remove a cap from a single spell, chain lightning would be it. after all it's damage does dissipate with subsequent targets so it's already weaker than a normal aoe spell.
buff spells.
summons to the meat grinder just toss them on there. focus on one enemy at time.
just wait untill last fight... then you will rage quit.
Maze traps are basically used to get rid of enemies while you mop up their friends, then they come back onto an empty battlefield and get mopped up in turn. I believe this effect doesn't allow a save and works against most things, making it quite the potent CC. I personally never really found a need to use an effect like that, but it's available.
With the Monsters I have found it vital to scout first... especially with my all Dwarven non caster party. I do not have much in the realm of AOE yet (my full cleric has some good AOE vs evil spells) but nothing that can take out a decent horde like fireballs could.
My Assassin and Bounty hunters do most of this... I will get lazy sometimes and move my whole party into the fog... this usually results in my poor dwarves being overrun and killed... though if I scout (especially with my assassin) I can discover weak points, prebuff, and get a strategy.... When I have scouted effectively I usually am able to win most battles on the first try without any losses..... losses always come with misplacement of men and unknown enemies.... as well as bringing in more enemies then needed... A well place poison shot can do wonders when bringing in 1/3 of the horde at a time...
You really need to stack up AoE damage to make it useful, much moreso in HoF (or just use melee). Chain Lightning isn't very strong, but Delayed Blast is nice, especially if an enemy is vulnerable. Cone of Cold is handy, but there aren't as many vulnerable enemies.