IWD1EE HoF my experience:
Wisterias
Member Posts: 108
Hello. I'm playing again this beautiful game. I played the game with other classes before, but I love sorcerers, so my group looks like this... again 
5 Dragon Disciples
1 Mage/Thief
I mean, sorcerers offer everything I need in this game in HoF mode. They can even be good fighters with Black Blade of Disaster + Tenser, so I don't really bother about playing other classes... Mages are ok, but the lack of scrolls hurt... so I prefer Sorcerers. The 6th char is thief too so I can disarm traps and backstab sometimes. Why Dragon Disciples over Normal Sorcerer? Free and easy 100% fire inmunity. I mean, all I do in 99% of the combats is spam Meteor Swarms and Fireballs, with Fire Elementals to distract and are inmune to fire (like me); I can even heal from my fireworks if I stack resistances. The mage/thief wears 100% fire resistance items, so np. I don't think it's worth it to be FMT, takes too long to be 30/30/30 imo.
I only found some situations where fire spells are not that useful, but... you can use other spells then. Lower Resistance helps, Mordenkainen Force MIssiles help...
What about Belhifet? Easy again: just Shapechange: Mindlfayer + Timestop. He takes like 4 or 5 hits to die this way. Just make sure you cast Enchanted Weapon on this character, and Spell Inmunity: Abjuration before entering the chamber, so your buffs don't get dispelled, and maybe some contingencies to cast Elementals or whatever 'when you see an enemy', so you have some decoys in there just in case...
But, how I start HOF at level 1? I do some Orcs/Yetis runs in HOF to become level 8-10 or so, then I can start playing the rest of the game with some more spells, Stoneskin, Fireballs, Fire Elementals, etc. I use a Legal Evil char who can cast Familiar: Imp. This familiar can polymorph into a Slime. It's inmune to normal weapons, so it's very useful as a tank while farming exp against orcs/etc. Takes some time to farm the experiencie, but not that much, maybe 2 hours. You sleep there to be ambushed byt the orcs or yetis, kill them, and that's all.
Saludos.
5 Dragon Disciples
1 Mage/Thief
I mean, sorcerers offer everything I need in this game in HoF mode. They can even be good fighters with Black Blade of Disaster + Tenser, so I don't really bother about playing other classes... Mages are ok, but the lack of scrolls hurt... so I prefer Sorcerers. The 6th char is thief too so I can disarm traps and backstab sometimes. Why Dragon Disciples over Normal Sorcerer? Free and easy 100% fire inmunity. I mean, all I do in 99% of the combats is spam Meteor Swarms and Fireballs, with Fire Elementals to distract and are inmune to fire (like me); I can even heal from my fireworks if I stack resistances. The mage/thief wears 100% fire resistance items, so np. I don't think it's worth it to be FMT, takes too long to be 30/30/30 imo.
I only found some situations where fire spells are not that useful, but... you can use other spells then. Lower Resistance helps, Mordenkainen Force MIssiles help...
What about Belhifet? Easy again: just Shapechange: Mindlfayer + Timestop. He takes like 4 or 5 hits to die this way. Just make sure you cast Enchanted Weapon on this character, and Spell Inmunity: Abjuration before entering the chamber, so your buffs don't get dispelled, and maybe some contingencies to cast Elementals or whatever 'when you see an enemy', so you have some decoys in there just in case...
But, how I start HOF at level 1? I do some Orcs/Yetis runs in HOF to become level 8-10 or so, then I can start playing the rest of the game with some more spells, Stoneskin, Fireballs, Fire Elementals, etc. I use a Legal Evil char who can cast Familiar: Imp. This familiar can polymorph into a Slime. It's inmune to normal weapons, so it's very useful as a tank while farming exp against orcs/etc. Takes some time to farm the experiencie, but not that much, maybe 2 hours. You sleep there to be ambushed byt the orcs or yetis, kill them, and that's all.
Saludos.
Post edited by Wisterias on
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Comments
Yes, but being honest, I don't want every simple combat to last 2 hours and having to kite all around the map to kill 1 Orc.
This works for most of the enemies that can give problems, like those Raksashas in ToTL. If you have the level to cast lvl 9 spells, ofc.
Just remember to cast Enchanted Weapon or your hits will not damage Belhifet.
Yeah, I got it. 😉
Not sure, all I can say is that direct spells do nothing on him in any difficulty, you can't even lower his magic resistance, it just says: 'ineffective'. So the best idea if you don't have typical melee fighters or archers with +3 arrows is to convert your arcane casters into fighters with Tenser/Black blade of disaster, or simply Timestop, Shapechange, Mindflayer... done. Just be careful not to step on the disable magic traps...
All those strategies were not possible in the non-EE versions of the game because spell book was way more limited... No Black Blades of Disaster, no Time Stop. It was way harder imo.
Strange enough but IWD Belhifet is very different to the BG SoD Belhifet version, where you can lower his res and damage him with spells. (You can even use wand of polymorph on him and it brings him Near Death instantly but only in LoB 🙃).
However, this simple attempt shows (U pointed it out too) that a good squad of melee fighters and archers (with +3 arrows) can beat HoF Belhifet in a straightforward fight (without any tricks and exploits, but with some smart maneuvering). 😎
Yes, it's doable in many ways. In fact biggest part of people just uses their mages there for buff, summon things, and let the warriors do the main thing. Thing is warriors can't do things that mages can, while mages can 'tenser/black blade' and become good warriors with stoneskin, images, and so on; you don't even need to go fighter/mage, kensai/mage to go melee in those situations if needed. 🙃
The 'Timestop>Mindflayer brain eater' thing is the biggest 'I broke this game without actually cheating' to ever exist 😆. Feels like a cheat but in fact it's legit (your level, your power, your knowledge about the spells you have...)
Problem in IWD is that scrolls are scarce, just like good amunition for archers is limited, that's why sorcerers are so great: free magic powers.
Original IWD's 'obligated' you to go the melee/archers way for sure, since magic was very limited to some spells, and sometimes maybe you could not even have them because you never found a scroll of this spell... So it was 'a must' to bring characters with good natural fighting skills.