Yay! Yay! I just won my first Yxonomei battle in IWD:EE, on the first try!
I must admit, I shamelessly used advice from this thread.
My sorcerer cast Invisibility on my thief, and summoned an invisible stalker with that special green staff that is placed in the dungeon just as a gift from Santa Claus for your arcane caster, and a Monster Summoning I from a scroll. (I got four goblins, and I must say, those little fellows held their own surprisingly well against Yxy.)
My pally ran up and opened the door, then immediately ran back. My invisible thief, standing at the door, got all the summons into Yxy's room, then ran back.
As soon as Yxy cast her Cloudkill, my cleric cast his always memorized Zone of Sweet Air, since I have learned early on that IWD loves cloud spells. So much for Yxy's chemical warfare.
My fighter-thief started firing arrows +2 from the Bow of Sseth at Yxy as soon as she came out, my inquisitor attacked her with his +2 axe, my cleric turned her undead summons, and my sorcerer pelted her with Magic Missiles. She couldn't resist *all* of them.
The four "arse-pulled" yuan-ti mages went down really fast just with some +1 arrows from the Bow of Sseth and a few whacks from my cleric and the summoned goblins, after my inquisitor got rid of all four Stoneskin spells with a single one-segment instacast Dispel.
I'm not sure exactly when my invisible stalker went down, but it fought like a trooper the whole time, causing massive DPS.
My sorcerer (me) decimated the entire yuan-ti elite archer corps with fireballs, blistering Yxy just a bit in the process, and my invisible stalker and goblins didn't even turn on me when they got caught in the blast.
It was a really awesome, honorable battle, worthy of song and praise! My thanks for all the advice here. It really pays to know your enemies before fighting. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
It s funny how using a simple cheese like improve invis is seen by some people as cheating while abusing trapping and metaknowledge of the game is seen as a brilliant strategy (i am not judging anything there, in a solo game, everyone can play the way he likes)
Why would improved invisibility be cheating? It's a level 4 spell. You have to earn the spell, either by finding the scroll in a hoard or by buying it, and it only lasts a few rounds.
What I would love to be able to do is win the Yx battle in her own chamber, or at least start out the fight with a conversation. I tried it once the first time and got waxed. TPK! That is going to take some planning though.
Why would improved invisibility be cheating? It's a level 4 spell. You have to earn the spell, either by finding the scroll in a hoard or by buying it, and it only lasts a few rounds.
What I would love to be able to do is win the Yx battle in her own chamber, or at least start out the fight with a conversation. I tried it once the first time and got waxed. TPK! That is going to take some planning though.
It's very winnable in her room, from the dialogue option. Not to say I've never lost this fight! But as I said earlier; I start my warriors with a direct melee attack on Yxi; my cleric(s) unleash Holy Smiting; while other spell casters and archers target the other spell casters. I consider this a sort of brute force tactic. A good strong party should win the fight pretty easily this way. A more average party might have to reload a time or two... Or try something completely different.
Why would improved invisibility be cheating? It's a level 4 spell. You have to earn the spell, either by finding the scroll in a hoard or by buying it, and it only lasts a few rounds.
What I would love to be able to do is win the Yx battle in her own chamber, or at least start out the fight with a conversation. I tried it once the first time and got waxed. TPK! That is going to take some planning though.
It's very winnable in her room, from the dialogue option. Not to say I've never lost this fight! But as I said earlier; I start my warriors with a direct melee attack on Yxi; my cleric(s) unleash Holy Smiting; while other spell casters and archers target the other spell casters. I consider this a sort of brute force tactic. A good strong party should win the fight pretty easily this way. A more average party might have to reload a time or two... Or try something completely different.
I went into this fight recently blind in multiplayer (while ie series is new for my teammate). We had a Blackguard, Blade, Avenger and Assassin. We were playing on core difficulty at that point.
I had no idea that wizards would spawn but I'd trapped outside her door anyway.
I don't remember the exact details of the fight but I do remember a few points: - we initiated dialogue - we used summons - the poison weapon ability from the blackguard and assassin contributed considerably - we had to pull back repeatedly - the blade died - the fight was ended with the Druid tanking in beetle form with the assassin and blackguard attacking from behind
I think it was a win on our first attempt though, I was ecstatic and there were high fives all around, definitely amazing playing the game for the first time with a friend to share the moments with.
I particularly liked that fight as we really utilised the full breadth of our character abilities and tactics to come out on top, barely.
It s funny how using a simple cheese like improve invis is seen by some people as cheating while abusing trapping and metaknowledge of the game is seen as a brilliant strategy (i am not judging anything there, in a solo game, everyone can play the way he likes)
I see them both as cheating. Any tactic that make use of a faulty AI is cheesy IMO. Improved Invisibility is overpowered in BG2 as it used to be in IWD2 before the first patch was released (after that it was still powerful, but far less useful). Traps... let's face it, AI can't handle those. AI does not know how to avoid them or disable them. Furthermore, IWD1 was created before the idea of traps settable by the player was even remotely possible. Unless you count Skull traps and Glyphs of Warding.
Yxie is a demon. A tanari marilith. She's not supposed to be easy to kill. She leads her army against you. You are suppose to kill her army and her in the process. Kill her in a battle, using your spells, your combos of spells and martial skills. If you don't do that you can't have a party proud of their achievements (unless you're roleplaying a band of assassins&thugs).
But if your opponents can use traps against you and i visibility against you, why is it cheating if you use traps and invisibility against them? The game gives you these abilities. That's like saying "you can't use magic swords, because the swords you are using were not designed with the original game."
Enhanced Edition was enhanced on both sides was it not? If the enemy can trap their own chamber, then move freely amingst their own traps while your characters set them off, then it is no stretch of the imagination to let the PC's do the same thing.
Enhanced Edition was enhanced on both sides was it not? If the enemy can trap their own chamber, then move freely amingst their own traps while your characters set them off, then it is no stretch of the imagination to let the PC's do the same thing.
That's just the thing. I don't feel it enhanced. I played the game (the original game) dozens of times and I feel that EE removed a lot of the feeling that you had in the original game. They made it easier, cheesier and altogether unbalanced. Yxie's battle is just such an example. I would suggest people try to play the original game too, not just EE and see how they do against her without sorcerers, traps and improved invisibility.
I didn't use sorcerers, or traps, or improved invisibility. It was still an easy fight. The only thing from EE that made it easier than the original was my archer.
I didn't use sorcerers, or traps, or improved invisibility. It was still an easy fight. The only thing from EE that made it easier than the original was my archer.
Yeah I alway found this a fairly easy fight in the original too. Well, it does depend on your party. But I tend towards heavy on melee and hitting power, and that seems to work well against Yxi and her stooges.
Yeah I alway found this a fairly easy fight in the original too. Well, it does depend on your party. But I tend towards heavy on melee and hitting power, and that seems to work well against Yxi and her stooges.
That really depends on wether you fought in the original pre-How. Back then that battle was the hardest in the entire game. She had immunity to all weapons except for +3 and most spells. At that point only Conlan's Hammer had a decent chance of killing her (that was also the whole rationale behind the quest that awards you that weapon, to allow the player a chance to find a weapon that can kill the bitch). Erevain's Broad sword was useless.
Well it's certainly been a ong time since I tried that! And probably only a single play through before I added HoW. Maybe I just lucked in to having the right guy with the hammer. But apart from a couple of stray battles where someone failed a save, I just don't ever remember this being one of the hard ones. A couple other battles in Dragon's Eye , especially the Ziggarat, seem like much more dramatic "coming of age" encounters to me.
Actually this all leads me to a speculation; do people who rely more on spell casters find Yxi hard and the Ziggarat easy? Because for me it's opposite; my warrior heavy parties often need a couple of tries to win against all those spell casters and trolls, while Yxi is usually a snap.
Yeah I alway found this a fairly easy fight in the original too. Well, it does depend on your party. But I tend towards heavy on melee and hitting power, and that seems to work well against Yxi and her stooges.
That really depends on wether you fought in the original pre-How. Back then that battle was the hardest in the entire game. She had immunity to all weapons except for +3 and most spells. At that point only Conlan's Hammer had a decent chance of killing her (that was also the whole rationale behind the quest that awards you that weapon, to allow the player a chance to find a weapon that can kill the bitch). Erevain's Broad sword was useless.
I certainly defeated her before HoW. I don't remember how difficult it was though, too long ago.
Actually this all leads me to a speculation; do people who rely more on spell casters find Yxi hard and the Ziggarat easy? Because for me it's opposite; my warrior heavy parties often need a couple of tries to win against all those spell casters and trolls, while Yxi is usually a snap.
I defeated her on my first battle. Back then I was just learning what D&D is all about, so my party consisted of a paladin, 3 fighters, a conjurer and a bard. So no thief to disable traps or cleric for healing. I still managed to finish the entire game, but Yxie was a challenge. Having a figher with 4 slots in hammers sure helped, though.
Comments
I must admit, I shamelessly used advice from this thread.
My sorcerer cast Invisibility on my thief, and summoned an invisible stalker with that special green staff that is placed in the dungeon just as a gift from Santa Claus for your arcane caster, and a Monster Summoning I from a scroll. (I got four goblins, and I must say, those little fellows held their own surprisingly well against Yxy.)
My pally ran up and opened the door, then immediately ran back. My invisible thief, standing at the door, got all the summons into Yxy's room, then ran back.
As soon as Yxy cast her Cloudkill, my cleric cast his always memorized Zone of Sweet Air, since I have learned early on that IWD loves cloud spells. So much for Yxy's chemical warfare.
My fighter-thief started firing arrows +2 from the Bow of Sseth at Yxy as soon as she came out, my inquisitor attacked her with his +2 axe, my cleric turned her undead summons, and my sorcerer pelted her with Magic Missiles. She couldn't resist *all* of them.
The four "arse-pulled" yuan-ti mages went down really fast just with some +1 arrows from the Bow of Sseth and a few whacks from my cleric and the summoned goblins, after my inquisitor got rid of all four Stoneskin spells with a single one-segment instacast Dispel.
I'm not sure exactly when my invisible stalker went down, but it fought like a trooper the whole time, causing massive DPS.
My sorcerer (me) decimated the entire yuan-ti elite archer corps with fireballs, blistering Yxy just a bit in the process, and my invisible stalker and goblins didn't even turn on me when they got caught in the blast.
It was a really awesome, honorable battle, worthy of song and praise! My thanks for all the advice here. It really pays to know your enemies before fighting. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
I hope that Tempos watched the fight and cheered your success.
What I would love to be able to do is win the Yx battle in her own chamber, or at least start out the fight with a conversation. I tried it once the first time and got waxed. TPK! That is going to take some planning though.
I had no idea that wizards would spawn but I'd trapped outside her door anyway.
I don't remember the exact details of the fight but I do remember a few points:
- we initiated dialogue
- we used summons
- the poison weapon ability from the blackguard and assassin contributed considerably
- we had to pull back repeatedly
- the blade died
- the fight was ended with the Druid tanking in beetle form with the assassin and blackguard attacking from behind
I think it was a win on our first attempt though, I was ecstatic and there were high fives all around, definitely amazing playing the game for the first time with a friend to share the moments with.
I particularly liked that fight as we really utilised the full breadth of our character abilities and tactics to come out on top, barely.
Traps... let's face it, AI can't handle those. AI does not know how to avoid them or disable them. Furthermore, IWD1 was created before the idea of traps settable by the player was even remotely possible. Unless you count Skull traps and Glyphs of Warding.
Yxie is a demon. A tanari marilith. She's not supposed to be easy to kill. She leads her army against you. You are suppose to kill her army and her in the process. Kill her in a battle, using your spells, your combos of spells and martial skills. If you don't do that you can't have a party proud of their achievements (unless you're roleplaying a band of assassins&thugs).
Enhanced Edition was enhanced on both sides was it not? If the enemy can trap their own chamber, then move freely amingst their own traps while your characters set them off, then it is no stretch of the imagination to let the PC's do the same thing.