Using choke points to kill Iron/Adamantite Golems from a safe distance is not just logical, but is the developers' intended strategy. Those golems, unlike the smaller Clay and Stone Golems, are always located right next to a convenient choke point.
Using choke points to kill Iron/Adamantite Golems from a safe distance is not just logical, but is the developers' intended strategy. Those golems, unlike the smaller Clay and Stone Golems, are always located right next to a convenient choke point.
What is more, you can lure them in such a way that they block the smaller golems. Then you can destroy the smaller golems in relative safety too. Some of them are easier to use in this way than others.
Using choke points to kill Iron/Adamantite Golems from a safe distance is not just logical, but is the developers' intended strategy. Those golems, unlike the smaller Clay and Stone Golems, are always located right next to a convenient choke point.
IIRC, there's no choke point at the Planar Sphere.
Using choke points to kill Iron/Adamantite Golems from a safe distance is not just logical, but is the developers' intended strategy. Those golems, unlike the smaller Clay and Stone Golems, are always located right next to a convenient choke point.
IIRC, there's no choke point at the Planar Sphere.
Yes there is, two or three in fact.
Adamantine/Iron Golems are only where there is a doorway they can't get through. Or in the "machine room", on the ring around where you put the heart, they can't go round the corners/past a crossway.
I've lost a character or two in that machine room during the cut scene. I placed the heart and then got pounded to goo during the cut. I make sure to take out all the golems first since that.
Using choke points to kill Iron/Adamantite Golems from a safe distance is not just logical, but is the developers' intended strategy. Those golems, unlike the smaller Clay and Stone Golems, are always located right next to a convenient choke point.
yeah but i mean Icewind Dale isn't really known for fair fights. Icewind Dale makes you fight a powerful demon WITH CLASS LEVELS at a point in the game where your party is only HALF her level. Oh and you have to fight a swarm of yuan-ti AT THE SAME TIME (or was it lizardmen? They had scales, I remember that much. P sure it was yuan-ti though). I don't think a game sadistic enough to throw something like Yxunomei at a party of level 7 adventurers gives two figs about giving you convenient choke points or anything else that might help you survive.
I only battled Yxonomei at level 7 once, because since then I've abused the difficulty rules to be a good bit stronger than that by the time I faced her. To this day I have no idea how the hell I pulled it off at low levels like those. And yeah, she's got Yuan-Ti to back her up, and Yuan-Ti wizards in your rear as I recall, it's absurd.
In fairness to Yx, it's not especially taxing of a fight at Core Rules difficulty. She might be immune to most disabler spells, but her minions aren't. And they're most of what breaks tactics in that fight.
Fun fact: last time I did that fight I used Yx's (or her minions'? I forget who cast it) Cloudkill spell against her minions. All I did was layer Entangle+Grease+Web onto the cloud and back into the side room they all came out of. I did lose my bait character but she wasn't carrying much anyway.
In fairness to Yx, it's not especially taxing of a fight at Core Rules difficulty. She might be immune to most disabler spells, but her minions aren't. And they're most of what breaks tactics in that fight.
Fun fact: last time I did that fight I used Yx's (or her minions'? I forget who cast it) Cloudkill spell against her minions. All I did was layer Entangle+Grease+Web onto the cloud and back into the side room they all came out of. I did lose my bait character but she wasn't carrying much anyway.
This strategy is called Pitt of Doom. It is the best way to deal with Yxunomei and her goons. The battle entails as follows. First disable all traps in front of the door. Secondly align your characters some far away, but still in sight of the entrance. Align them in a line, then start buffing. Leave haste for last. Send just one character to parley with Yxie and then retreat him/her back to the line. At that point throw at the entrance several web, grease and entangle spells. If your party has druid, throw a insect plague as well. And have you mage/bard cast 2 stinking clouds.
As Yxie and her goons show up, fire everything at the Pit of Doom. Fireballs, Snowballs, Skull Traps (as many as you can muster), Ligthning bolts (aim at the walls near you for the bolt to bounce right into the enemies), potions of burning oil (potions of fireballs) and if you can, some confusion spells as well.
Cloudkills are unavailable unless you use the cheesy EE introduction of a sorceror. Best way to break a game Beamdog ever did.
For mages, a scroll of Cloudkill can only be found first in Severed Hand.
Yxie's first 2 moves is to summon some skeletons. Ignore them or summon some monsters of your own. Eventually, she moves away from the pit of doom, as she is basically immune from most of their effects, but keep in mind that a paladin's smite evil can still hurt her. At that point face her with your best tanks. Conlan's Hammer is one of the best weapons that you should have available to kill her with.
After she's gone, her goons should be dead as well, due to PoD. At that point all you need to remember is to save and remove the rest of traps.
Or cast Chromatic Orb at her. She has decent saves and strong MR, but no immunity to paralysis, and the paralysis effect from Chromatic Orb lasts more than long enough to kill her. It may take multiple castings, but you should have lots of level 1 spell slots by the time you reach her.
It's been so long since I've done IWD, and honestly most of my Yxonomei fights tend to be confusing since I've always defaulted to that Pit of Doom thing, plus hasted summons, but what spells/ranged attacks does she even have? If none, then just kite her, and I'm pretty sure there's some arrows that are effective against her. If not, let summons take her hits while the melee guys do their thing. By herself, she isn't as imposing as her stats would indicate, in my experience.
I don't know how popular it is, but the prologue of IWD os way, waaay more fun and replayable than Candlekeep.
I mean, it's a real town, with lore that connects the rest of the game together, and monsters here and there. Candlekeep is a bunch of monks who explain the game controls, Imoen, Gorion, and a bunch of stock NPCs, plus a library that you can't go inside. Easthaven isn't really a bastion of roleplaying depth, but compared to Candlekeep, it's the Fortress of Regrets.
I don't know how popular it is, but the prologue of IWD os way, waaay more fun and replayable than Candlekeep.
I mean, it's a real town, with lore that connects the rest of the game together, and monsters here and there. Candlekeep is a bunch of monks who explain the game controls, Imoen, Gorion, and a bunch of stock NPCs, plus a library that you can't go inside. Easthaven isn't really a bastion of roleplaying depth, but compared to Candlekeep, it's the Fortress of Regrets.
Not to mention that the orc cave is by no means a tutorial!
Not to mention that the orc cave is by no means a tutorial!
Far from a tutorial, it's a statement of purpose. It's the game designers telling you right then and there: This is what this game will be like. Take it or leave it, but know what's expected of you first. If you don't have what it takes to beat ~20 orcs and an ogre with a level 1 party, you don't have what it takes to win.
Best way to enjoy IWD is to play on Core (normal) rules.
And back before HoW as released Yxunomei was even harder. She was immune to weapons below +3. So no Arrows +2 could hit her and the generic +3 weapons found in Conlan's Store were not there either.
Only Conlan's Hammer could hit her and Snow Maiden's Reaver (as it deals cold damage) if you were lucky enough to get it.
Also, some spells, like Skull Trap, Chromatic Orb and Shocking Grasp (best spell against her as back then she was particularly vulnerable to electricity).
Best way to enjoy IWD is to play on Core (normal) rules.
And back before HoW as released Yxunomei was even harder. She was immune to weapons below +3. So no Arrows +2 could hit her and the generic +3 weapons found in Conlan's Store were not there either.
Only Conlan's Hammer could hit her and Snow Maiden's Reaver (as it deals cold damage) if you were lucky enough to get it.
Also, some spells, like Skull Trap, Chromatic Orb and Shocking Grasp (best spell against her as back then she was particularly vulnerable to electricity).
Huh. I have HoW, maybe I should get around to installing it for once instead of playing vanilla. Then maybe I wouldn't have such a Bad Time with Yxunomei every playthrough. Any chance they nerfed Poquelin as well? He's where I get stuck and my playthrough ends every single time. I play on core rules every time, but I can't beat him even if I temporarily change it to the easiest setting (he is the only boss in the game that's ever made me leave Core at all).
Huh. I have HoW, maybe I should get around to installing it for once instead of playing vanilla. Then maybe I wouldn't have such a Bad Time with Yxunomei every playthrough. Any chance they nerfed Poquelin as well? He's where I get stuck and my playthrough ends every single time. I play on core rules every time, but I can't beat him even if I temporarily change it to the easiest setting (he is the only boss in the game that's ever made me leave Core at all).
If you mean the final battle with Poquelin, that one actually gets a lot harder. In addition to iron golems, he gets a pair of Cornugon devils to back him up. Don't ever let one hit you in melee, or you'll take bleed damage for what feels like forever, and never be able to cast again. Also, it makes Everard's last scene even more ridiculous, since in addition to tanking Poquelin's Searing Orb, those two whale on him for like 200-300 damage while he's just doing his thing, and he takes all of it. Makes you wonder if he actually had to retire from fighting.
Huh. I have HoW, maybe I should get around to installing it for once instead of playing vanilla. Then maybe I wouldn't have such a Bad Time with Yxunomei every playthrough. Any chance they nerfed Poquelin as well? He's where I get stuck and my playthrough ends every single time. I play on core rules every time, but I can't beat him even if I temporarily change it to the easiest setting (he is the only boss in the game that's ever made me leave Core at all).
If you mean the final battle with Poquelin, that one actually gets a lot harder. In addition to iron golems, he gets a pair of Cornugon devils to back him up. Don't ever let one hit you in melee, or you'll take bleed damage for what feels like forever, and never be able to cast again. Also, it makes Everard's last scene even more ridiculous, since in addition to tanking Poquelin's Searing Orb, those two whale on him for like 200-300 damage while he's just doing his thing, and he takes all of it. Makes you wonder if he actually had to retire from fighting.
Naw, I mean the first fight with him, in Dorn's Deep.
Naw, I mean the first fight with him, in Dorn's Deep.
Oh, well, I have no idea. I always buff to the gills and make a beeline for Poquelin, and the fight ends in less than 30 seconds. Ignore his buddies, I say, they're not important.
That battle is intended to be easy. Poquelin is scripted to teleport after he gets to injured status (basically 50% HPs loss) and human Poquelin does not have many HPs to begin with.
HoW actually made that battle way easier, because many players were tempted to go and do HoW and TotL before the final battle. Thus, that battle and the one against Belhifet were way easier. I rarely picked that route, preferring to go the old way of importing characters to HoW.
Also, personally, I enjoyed the older animations for characters as they were in the original non-HoW version of the game or in the original before TuTu BG1.
@LadyEibhilinRhett I usually beat poquelin by force - haste your fighters and boost them , tgen have them charge straight at poquelin.
ehehehehe. Fighters. Yes. I certainly have those. I mean, what kind of idiot would make a team with four mages? Not me, that's for sure. I defs have fighters. All those, uh, good good fighters. Yup. (whistles innocently)
@LadyEibhilinRhett I usually beat poquelin by force - haste your fighters and boost them , tgen have them charge straight at poquelin.
ehehehehe. Fighters. Yes. I certainly have those. I mean, what kind of idiot would make a team with four mages? Not me, that's for sure. I defs have fighters. All those, uh, good good fighters. Yup. (whistles innocently)
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I will never understand how people are unable to stand Aerie yet consider Viconia’s victim playing behavior okay.
Adamantine/Iron Golems are only where there is a doorway they can't get through.
Or in the "machine room", on the ring around where you put the heart, they can't go round the corners/past a crossway.
Fun fact: last time I did that fight I used Yx's (or her minions'? I forget who cast it) Cloudkill spell against her minions. All I did was layer Entangle+Grease+Web onto the cloud and back into the side room they all came out of. I did lose my bait character but she wasn't carrying much anyway.
As Yxie and her goons show up, fire everything at the Pit of Doom. Fireballs, Snowballs, Skull Traps (as many as you can muster), Ligthning bolts (aim at the walls near you for the bolt to bounce right into the enemies), potions of burning oil (potions of fireballs) and if you can, some confusion spells as well.
Cloudkills are unavailable unless you use the cheesy EE introduction of a sorceror. Best way to break a game Beamdog ever did.
For mages, a scroll of Cloudkill can only be found first in Severed Hand.
Yxie's first 2 moves is to summon some skeletons. Ignore them or summon some monsters of your own. Eventually, she moves away from the pit of doom, as she is basically immune from most of their effects, but keep in mind that a paladin's smite evil can still hurt her. At that point face her with your best tanks. Conlan's Hammer is one of the best weapons that you should have available to kill her with.
After she's gone, her goons should be dead as well, due to PoD. At that point all you need to remember is to save and remove the rest of traps.
If you don't have what it takes to beat ~20 orcs and an ogre with a level 1 party, you don't have what it takes to win.
And back before HoW as released Yxunomei was even harder. She was immune to weapons below +3. So no Arrows +2 could hit her and the generic +3 weapons found in Conlan's Store were not there either.
Only Conlan's Hammer could hit her and Snow Maiden's Reaver (as it deals cold damage) if you were lucky enough to get it.
Also, some spells, like Skull Trap, Chromatic Orb and Shocking Grasp (best spell against her as back then she was particularly vulnerable to electricity).
HoW actually made that battle way easier, because many players were tempted to go and do HoW and TotL before the final battle. Thus, that battle and the one against Belhifet were way easier. I rarely picked that route, preferring to go the old way of importing characters to HoW.
Also, personally, I enjoyed the older animations for characters as they were in the original non-HoW version of the game or in the original before TuTu BG1.
Not me, that's for sure. I defs have fighters. All those, uh, good good fighters. Yup. (whistles innocently)