Neera TOB Quest Help (Spoilers, Duh)

ZaramMaldovar

Every time I play TOB, I always hit a roadblock with Neera's Quest. Everything seems fine and dandy and then FOUR RED WIZARDS show up with FOUR FIGHTERS and FOUR ARCHERS. And since I need to be sleeping to trigger than him, I don't have to time to buff up (and from buffing up before this fight isn't metagaming, because CHARNAME knows it's coming) before the fight. Neera's magic is useless, which pretty much makes her useless, my backup mage is quickly dispatched, and my other characters have little to do when the fighters back the mages up, and the mages have Protection from Magical Weapons on them.
Advice please.

Lord_Tansheron

Big fights like that are a matter of correctly splitting things up into smaller portions you can deal with one after the other.
First, identify the threats: in all likelihood this will be the mages first, then archers, then fighters (depending on your party setup of course).
Next you identify what they are doing; what spells are being cast, and in what sequence? How is the positioning? Who is where, and going for whom?
And lastly, you evaluate your options: what tools do I have? What do they work against? What do I need to have happen for them to work?

That is the process, basically, though of course in reality it is less rigid and more complex. The fight is certainly one of the harder ones in the vanilla game, and will probably require several tries if you're not intimately familiar with everything already. There is no shame in that at all. Try things out, try to solve the puzzle. What pieces do you need? How can you fit them together? Do you need to use spells to control the battlefield (disables, etc.)? Do you need to put out high damage and quickly dispatch troublesome targets?

You will figure it out I'm sure! The exact solution of course varies with your party and personal style, so don't look for somebody else's blanket solution. You have all the tools, just don't be afraid to use them! You may find in the end that actually working hard on such a challenge is why this game is such fun, and for such a long time.

ZaramMaldovar

@Lord_Tansheron Vanilla? It's NEERA'S quest, this isn't the vanilla game, it's the Enhanced Edition. But thank you for the advice

Jalily

Vanilla can also refer to the unmodded Enhanced Editions.

Lord_Tansheron

Yes, sorry for the confusion; I was indeed using it to mean "unmodded", or "base version", if you so will.

Tidus

imho:
- if you have a thief, have him/her place as many traps as possible before you go to sleep
- remember, it's red wizards you are facing (aka don't bother with fire spells)
- have your arcane caster load up on contingencies and sequencers/triggers as buff replacers
- summon stuff to block the way so that their fighters and archers won't be able to close in on your squishies, or try to 'chaos' them
- don't be shy with quick slot items and charges [this is important, you are at epic levels and have epic gear while they do not... they're just drunk on potions to balance scale]
- keep up with what's happening and if your main target does something you don't have an immediate answer to, just switch and pound something else

as @Lord_Tansheron said though, much stands on your party composition...

Gallowglass

I can only offer advice from what has worked for me in this fight ... but I've come to a consistent conclusion, which so far has worked for me whoever is in my party:-

1) The key is to have prepared (i.e. before sleeping) a Minor Spell Sequencer with two Web spells in it. (Since Neera's magic will be disabled in this fight, it makes sense to have her be the one who prepares this sequencer, because she can still trigger the sequencer even though she can't cast new spells.) Toss this sequencer into the Thayans as soon as you regain control from the cutscene, and it turns out that most of them are vulnerable to it.
2) Also make sure that any Mages/Sorcerers/Bards/Druids have cast Stoneskin or Iron Skins (as applicable) before sleeping, because this (unlike other buffs) will last through sleep.
3) Because the Thayans are now in a glue of double-Web, stand well back and attack with ranged weapons - even the characters who usually rush into melee. (I find that with the Webs tossed into the middle of the Thayans, the starting position of the player's party is just beyond the edge of the Webbed area ... so don't move forward!)
4) Spam the Thayans with Remove Magic (if you have another arcane caster than Neera available) or otherwise Dispel Magic from your divine caster(s).
5) Arm Neera with wands and summoning-totems, so that she can still do something during the fight. And have her also cast MMM before sleeping, because the MMMs will also last through sleep ... the enemy Wizards might resist the fire damage, but their supporting fighters don't! (The Book of Golems is quite handy in this fight, I've found.)

ZaramMaldovar

I've essentially figured this out, though the immediate teleportation into the Yuan-Ti fight threw me for a loop, thanks guys.

lunar

Have Neera use wands. Wand of cloudkill is very, very useful. I had three casters lob a cloudkill (wands and actual spells) to the red wizards. A trigger of x3 cloudkill will also do nicely. While a poison immune fighter of yours can wade into cloudkills, the poisonous vapors will disrupt enemy mages and can actually kill them in a few rounds. 1-10 damage may look small, especially in ToB, but when there are 6 of the cloudkills, that's 6-60 damage per round, with no save. Any mage will croak inside the cloudkill zone in 2-3 rounds. Plus since clouds all damage them with intervals, spell casting is next to impossible.