[Spoilers] Need help in Coalition Camp fight

Yistaan

Siege of Dragonspear seems to have been going along smoothly so far, but now I'm stuck in a fight that I just can't seem to win.

I'm at the point in the game after Caelar had her failed parley with the coalition and tried to get my character to surrender himself to her, which the coalition refused. Up till now, I had went to the Underground River to scout Caelar's crusade, placing the barrel of Bwoosh to explode her base and poisoning the crusade's water supply. I could not find the crusade's food to poison, and the point was moot because soon after poisoning the water I was attacked by the crusade higher-ups. Although I defeated them in combat, I fled the underground river back to the coalition camp, at which point I was told to go to the parley.

After the failed parley, my party is immediately thrown into the raid on the coalition camp by Caelar's forces. This is where things start to go wrong. I am told that I need to protect Andrus while she "readies" the Bwoosh (shouldn't it have gone off by now?), and I approach Dosia for healing and, if needed, "resting" (rejuvenates spells--although this is limited to 2 or 3 tries before Dosia dies of exhaustion).

The raid starts off with a party of orcs and trolls. I chose to command the archers firing fire arrows, and am (barely) able to kill all the trolls, although all the archers die in the process. This is when things get worse, and I have to fall back (although I was able to get a pause long enough in the fighting to get a save game in here).

Now hordes of Caelar's forces just keep slaughtering my party, and I can't seem to stop them. I thought poisoning the water was supposed to decrease the power of Caelar's forces? It doesn't seem like it.

The farthest I can get so far is until Caelar's lieutenant Grimgor shows up. Then he and his minions just start cutting through my party and I just can't seem to defeat them. I keep going to Dosia for healing (which she does even during combat, and money isn't an issue as I have tons of gold saved up). However, her healing is not enough to help me against Grimgor and his forces, and rejuvenation for spells is limited before she dies.

Does anyone have any tips on how this fight can be won? I am playing as the default Abdel character, who is now a level 8 fighter. My party includes Minsc, Dynaheir, Glint, Jaheira, and Khalid. I am playing on core rules difficulty. Minsc, Dynaheir, Jaheira, and Khalid were in my main party in Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, and they accumulated gear in the main game as well as Tales of the Sword Coast, which was all imported into Siege of Dragonspear after defeating Sarevok (although items in bags of holding/containers seem to have been lost). They still can't seem to fend off this camp raid though. I'd appreciate any tips, thanks.

Noon

The poisoned supplies and the bwoosh are for the castle attack, not the camp one. Andrus protects the unstable explosive barrels still in the camp, not the bwoosh in the river.
About the battles (in core difficulty), i always open with 1 or 2 aoe spell in the enemy and tank the attacking foes, the archers troop doing a good job on the trolls. I just have to manage my tanks to keep them alive.
Then I only use rejuvenation if i don't have any aoe spell for the next wave, otherwise i simply heal everyone. The next waves are easier imo, adding a few crowd control spells to make it easy.

Yistaan

I usually open with a fireball and sunfire as well. Perhaps I'll have Dynaheir memorize more of these before Dosia's rejuvenation. The only problem with these spells is that the rest of the party can be hurt by them as well. Also, despite putting boots of haste on Dynaheir, she seems to take forever to cast these spells at which point the bad guys have started cutting her down.

I'll try outfitting Dynaheir with nothing but fireballs and sunfires and see if that helps, while having her drink invisibility potions beforehand. I'll try to keep the rest of the party out of the way.

Blackmoor

if youe got any free action stuff..rings or the boots on the vendor...web is a great way to slow down rampaging packs of enemies for ranged or aoe to hit them...web and cloudkill is a great way to ruin someones day

Abi_Dalzim

For crowd control of non-trolls, Emotion: Hopelessness is a godsend in this game. It'll render entire swarms of enemies ineffectual. Probably the best SOD mage spell, honestly, since it's party-friendly.

Yistaan

Thanks for the tips. I'm still trying, just got back from my second try after reading this, but will try again. I've packed fireballs and sunfires, but they didn't seem to do much. I used web, but the effect on slowing down Caelar's forces was minimal. Haven't gotten to cloudkill yet. I don't have the emotion spells to use on Caelar's army, must have missed those scrolls.

Thanks, I'll keep trying to win this fight.

xzar_monty

@Yistaan: There are quite a few amulets of missile blast around (you know that yellow thing with approximately five charges). When Grimgor comes around, those are extremely handy.

I found the battle with Grimgor to be a complete breeze. Here's why: in the beginning of the battle, three of my guys sent a missile blast, Neera cast a fireball, Glint cast holy smite and M'Khiin cast spirit fire. That took care of half the attackers. On the second round, I started attacking them in ordinary fashion but with Voghlin casting slow and Neera casting hold monster. After that, I was basically a winner already.

I would forget about web and cloudkill completely, because they both harm you as well.

I'm playing on core rules, and I found these fights a bit too easy, if anything. The main reason is that I have Corwin in my party. She's a ridiculously overpowered killer, as any archer is with these rules.

Disgruntler

Personally I found the SoD army fights to be a breeze. The only fight that gave me trouble was against the reinforcements in the cellar. I played on the second highest difficulty, with damage buffs disabled.

My party consisted of a blackguard Charname, Jaheirs, Safana, Corwin, Branwen and Neera.

Buffs I'm always keeping active are 'Stone/Ironskin', 'Protection from Evil'. Before fights I usually cast 'Blessing', 'Barkskin', that chant, 'Holy Armor', 'Mirror Image', 'Speeed' and whatever I feel like.

Fights I usually started with 'Greater Malison' cast by Neera, followed with 'Hold Person/Monster' or any other debuff by Branwen and Jaheira. If there are spellcasters Jaheira 'Insect Plagues' the lot of them.
Further spells I cast are every debuff imaginable. 'Alp', 'Despair', 'Glitterdust', 'Slow' and summoned monsters. If necessary I dispel, charm enemies and mind controlled allies or get a quick heal in. Though potions are quicker and more reliable in combat.
Direct damage spells I don't find all that useful anymore. 'Smite' is good, 'Magic Missile' is amazing, the arrows are useful, too. Fireballs and stuff are just to unwieldy.
If I have the choice between a fireball that dors damage and between a summoned monster that also does damage AND is a meatshield, I prepare the summoning everytime.
(Well, I keep like one fireball handy)

My Charname works as a meat shield together with Jaheira, summoned monsters and Branwen after some spellcasting.

Corwin and Safana attack from range, especially Corwin is extremely good at that. She usually picks of casters whose kidneys have been replaced with bees.

If absolutely necessary I can make use of potions, wands or item charges.
Though you should save any 'Arrow of Detonation' for the actual attack on Dragonspear Castle. Chances are, you'll be sick of fighting (console) peasants by then.
If Beamdog patches 'Arrows of Horrid Wilting' into the trilogy I will name my firstborn Abu Dhalzim.

Francois

I found the camp battles very easy (on core rules) got them all on the first try almost without a scratch. Maybe it depends on the party you have. I have a paladin with excellent armor class and HP to tank. Corwin and Minsc for archers, Dynaheir, Glint and Neera for magic. For the trolls I took the dwarves. For the mages the wizardslayers, for the infantry I took the archers. Start most fights with fireballs from wands and exploding arrows before your allies move to engage the enemy (wands are better here because there is no casting time). Then summon and confusion are helpful.

Abi_Dalzim

I just realized that with your party, you wouldn't be able to use enchantments like Emotion anyways, so forget about that. Still, Jaheira's Call Lightning isn't a bad idea, and you can use Arrows of Detonation, Potions of Explosions, and the aforementioned Necklace of Missiles to do a ton of aoe damage.

Fardragon

Funny, I found the camp fight stupidly easy, especially compared to some of the other battles I had fought in SoD.

Say hello to my wand of Fireballs Mr Troll...

Juris

Between the potions of explosions, fireballs, necklaces of explosion, arrows of detonation, etc, you can hit enemy mobs with 3-4 fireballs round 1. Makes life easier Then have archers finish off the weakened bad guys first and have the tanks engage the rest. You've got a great front line with a lvl 8 fighter, Minsc Jaheira and Khalid.
Potions man, potions. And don't forget how awesome potions of Con and Dex can be.

Yistaan

Thanks for all the input. Many of my wands and all my arrows of detonation were used up during the Battle for Bridgefort earlier in the game. I should have made it a priority to buy some more of them.

I don't play as much on weekdays, but I'll try to put your tips into action this week--will definitely really give it a go during the weekend if I can't win the fight before then.

Metal_Hurlant

Just sell your wands before they're used up and buy them back fully recharged.

lunar

Choosing right support is important, as well. Wizard slayers go well against mages, archers are helpful with trolls with their acid/fire arrows, etc. Thieves helped the best with the orog army, one even backstabbed the big bad cleric to death.

Blast them away with fireball/fire wand (mages or bards), explosion potion, or amulet that sends fireballs (all other classes). If 6 of your party releases a fireball at the start of the battle, enemies will crumble fast. SoD is one good example of 'if one fireball does not solve your problem, you just need a few more'

Yistaan

It was a long and tedious battle, but I finally won this fight. Dosia constantly healing me was a must. Time to get on with the rest of the game. Thanks for all of the advice!

Fardragon

Even a simple Web spell is effective for archers v trolls.

The principle in any of these mass fights is to disable as many of the enemy as possible in the first round. That way you always have the benefit of superior numbers. It's standard military tactics, as practised by Nelson at Trafalgar for example.

You can also swap out party members just for the battle if you have a fighter-heavy group.