Ok, so the Cleric/Illusionist I have did great against the minor bosses in LDD. I’m going to assume anyone reading this doesn’t need spoiler tags.
Malavon died to Mislead. I didn’t summon aerial servants here because there’s a couple umber hulks as well as Mal’s own spells, annd I didn’t want to have any gnomes killed by my summons. Anytime confusion is a possibility, I leave Servants in the holster. Taking a couple hits from one’s own Servant costs a lot of HP. I did summon mind-immune undead for fodder. Cast IH and Mislead in the library, and Mal went down.
Palace fight, I cast Project Image at the top of the stairs, and buffed a full pack of Servants, plus myself, and trapped a door with Glyphs of Warding (Cl/Ill can’t cast Skull Trap).Then Mislead, and cast invisibility on my Misled image. Kraken Society mages died to Servants, Glyphs, and Misled flayer tentacles.
Watchtower fight was also interesting, if anticlimactic. Full buffs, Sanctuary, then Recitation once inside. The archers didn’t appear to start reacting until the Recitation spell was finished, which is useful to know - e.g it is when a spell targets, or affects if there is no target, that breaks Sanctuary. Then a Stun symbol (another -4 to save) stunned them all. I had IH on, so I just beat them down. Kelly got free at the end, so I stopped him again with Chromatic Orb, and carried on.
Ilmadia died to summons, nothing much to see here. The Priest-mages are usually much tougher for me, since they cast Stoneskin etc, so I sent in my summons then dispelled the mages so they were easy meat.
Perdiem is of course the easiest for a high level good or neutral cleric. Sanctuary, turn, buff, crush Idol. The Idol isn’t smart, it will cast Flamestrike on a fire-immune character, and Sol’s Searing Orb (a projectile!) on a character who has Entropy Shield going.
I cleared the entry, watchtower, Temple, Palace, and entrance to gnometown on one day’s worth of spells. Rested then did Malavon, salamanders, and Ilmadia. It’s crazy how a solo can spend days in the Vale of Shadows, but crush Lower Dorn’s Deep in a fraction of the time.
Umber hulks are annoying. But Chaotic Commands or potions of clarity reduce them to just another semi-strong grunt. CC is one of the key buffs I keep up all the time with the Cl/ill, not least because it can be cast on her by a projected image. I’d prefer Mind Blank, but that’s an opposition school, and I also have Impervious Sanctity if I need it.
Umber hulks are annoying. But Chaotic Commands or potions of clarity reduce them to just another semi-strong grunt. CC is one of the key buffs I keep up all the time with the Cl/ill, not least because it can be cast on her by a projected image. I’d prefer Mind Blank, but that’s an opposition school, and I also have Impervious Sanctity if I need it.
Ah, yeah, right. Usually, I see Umber Hulks in Tier I-4 of Black Pits 2 (I replay it often for testing purposes). In BP2 I just drink potions of clarity. IIRC, in Lower Dorn's Deep I didn't cast Chaotic Commands systematically and it was a mistake vs Umber Hulks. 😼
Umber hulks are annoying. But Chaotic Commands or potions of clarity reduce them to just another semi-strong grunt. CC is one of the key buffs I keep up all the time with the Cl/ill, not least because it can be cast on her by a projected image. I’d prefer Mind Blank, but that’s an opposition school, and I also have Impervious Sanctity if I need it.
Ah, yeah, right. Usually, I see Umber Hulks in Tier I-4 of Black Pits 2 (I replay it often for testing purposes). In BP2 I just drink potions of clarity. IIRC, in Lower Dorn's Deep I didn't cast Chaotic Commands systematically and it was a mistake vs Umber Hulks. 😼
I had rough problems with them in Malavon Palace, in the entrance; their confuse effect works even when you are invisible 👀
I had to control the situation casting Otiluke Spheres on every confused party member who would start running around or attacking the Umber Hulk, becoming visible, being attacked then by other confused party members and stuff. I have no idea how I was able to survive that with no one dead 🙃
How did you have multiple such spheres available? What else do you use them for? I don’t think I’ve cast that spell in years.
Well this group was 5 Dragon Disciples+ 1 mage/thief 😆, I know, OP party even for HoF; this was the only time in this run that I said 'ok I'm dead' because I thought It would be safe to enter there being invisible, but no.
That's why I didn't drink potions to avoid the effect of Umber Hulks. It was stressful but somehow I was able to survive the situation.
Another uses... You can use it on some minion and it becomes a nice inmune decoy. Not sure if this works right now in last versions but I guess it does.
Another uses... You can use it on some minion and it becomes a nice inmune decoy. Not sure if this works right now in last versions but I guess it does.
Hmm.... it doesn't work for me. Enemies stop attacking any creature inside Otiluke's Sphere and change their targets.
I thought the ORS exploit where enemies mindlessly attacked a protected character was fixed long ago. But yet, enemies will attack a weapon-immune character (PFNW, Lathander’s Shield, high level monk, extra-planar summons) and not switch.
Regardless, losing that potential usage of ORS makes it a top notch emergency defensive spell and perhaps a second rate offensive spell.
I have thought about playing around with it in conjunction with Mislead. Not that it happens often, but I do wonder if it might block the operation of True Sight or Oracle.
Alright, updating vs minor bosses, the bane of TotL- rakshasa. I haven’t fought this fight in a while, so I tried a couple strategies to see if I could make them work better as a solo heavy caster. Aaand nope.
IMO, fighting at the top of the stairs is tactically reckless. You don’t have choke points and the rakshasa can see you, which means they will dispel you, and they will summon shadow monsters right on top of you so you can’t move, and they will cast a boatload of spells and disablers directly on you. The Cl/Ill can’t cast spell immunity: abjuration even if it pulls it from the shelf, so inviting a dispel is death. Nb. I tried this fight at the top for giggles, despite knowing this strategy has been an abject failure for me always, to no avail. 6 boosted aerial servants and a lot of symbols and glyphs were insufficient to the task.
Second attempt involved fire elemental summons at the bottom of the stairs, and running back past the line for distance. It went well until my last replacement summons went down and the rakshasas moved forward far enough to target me. The enemies in this fight bring so much magic and might to the table, it’s always a difficult and chaotic battle.
My third attempt involved some pre-thinking. If one can’t cast faster or better, and can’t pre-cast enough to win, how does one win? By being sneaky and abusing spell mechanics to avoid being targeted. I set up at the bottom of the stairs first as I like to, then went forward to dialogue and run back as before. This time when running back, I ran to a far corner and cast Mislead, then cast invisibility on the Misled image. I moved forward to cast Incendiary Cloud and Meteor Swarm on the stairway, staying out of the range of dispels. This time, when my summons went down, the remaining Rakshasas and invisible stalkers rushed forward to stand around my Misled caster, but did not attack. I took the opportunity to cast Entropy Shield (giving me 127% fire resistance with the earlier PfF), then Incendiary Cloud centred on myself, then Holy Power and Righteous Magic, to help clean it all up.
The rakshasa themselves don’t possess key items. You will want to grab the scrolls off the shelf.
I’ve never tried to skip the fight, so I don’t know if they come after you for the key or not. Try it and let me know! That would make things substantially less risky, if one could just skip this nasty fight.
The rakshasa themselves don’t possess key items. You will want to grab the scrolls off the shelf.
I’ve never tried to skip the fight, so I don’t know if they come after you for the key or not. Try it and let me know! That would make things substantially less risky, if one could just skip this nasty fight.
Okay, I've killed spectral guards in the main hall by Disintegration and grabbed 4 scrolls from the shelf. So far, I'm not obliged to speak with that Rakshasa disguised in Hobart. Apparent, he want the Dungeon Key from Maluradek's private chambers. So, I will indeed try to skip that insane fight. 😎
Another uses... You can use it on some minion and it becomes a nice inmune decoy. Not sure if this works right now in last versions but I guess it does.
Hmm.... it doesn't work for me. Enemies stop attacking any creature inside Otiluke's Sphere and change their targets.
Maladurek isn’t that much of a boss. The teleports are annoying, and Power Word: Blind would be if he didn’t reliably follow it up in a couple rounds with dispel. Because he does cast dispel so often and seems very hard to disrupt, casters aren’t going to have their full buffs for long. I recast Holy Power multiple times so I could hit him with TWD. He does not respect invisibility and may not respect Mislead - it was hard for me to tell whether he targeted me with dispel, or just caught me in the AoE.
I actually turned then chased some spectral guards and triggered M sooner than I wanted, but this was all about summons. I used Aerial Servants to do damage and other assorted trash for distraction/meatshield. He might be protected against the disruption effects of TWD. I hit him a lot and did the double damage, but destroyed him the conventional way.
Nope. It’s pretty limiting, not just for the weakness to dispel. No arcane elemental resistance spells, no PFNW, no Mantle, and so on. Ther cleric class gives some protection spells so there are some workarounds, but in some cases they aren’t as good for amount of protection or duration.
Abjuration is opposition school to the Illusionist. No spell immunity for this build!
Damn, I thought it was only necromancy
In BG it's indeed only Necromancy, but in IWD Illusion has 2 opposite schools for some weird reason. 😼
Now that I remember, in IWD2 it's like this too.
The opposite schools system is weird in all D&D editions.
In IWD2 I had an illusionist Deep gnome, I took 1 cleric of talos level and he was able to cast Necromancy and Abjuration arcane spells again. I don't know if this is an intended behaviour, but was ok for me 🙃.
Comments
Malavon died to Mislead. I didn’t summon aerial servants here because there’s a couple umber hulks as well as Mal’s own spells, annd I didn’t want to have any gnomes killed by my summons. Anytime confusion is a possibility, I leave Servants in the holster. Taking a couple hits from one’s own Servant costs a lot of HP. I did summon mind-immune undead for fodder. Cast IH and Mislead in the library, and Mal went down.
Palace fight, I cast Project Image at the top of the stairs, and buffed a full pack of Servants, plus myself, and trapped a door with Glyphs of Warding (Cl/Ill can’t cast Skull Trap).Then Mislead, and cast invisibility on my Misled image. Kraken Society mages died to Servants, Glyphs, and Misled flayer tentacles.
Watchtower fight was also interesting, if anticlimactic. Full buffs, Sanctuary, then Recitation once inside. The archers didn’t appear to start reacting until the Recitation spell was finished, which is useful to know - e.g it is when a spell targets, or affects if there is no target, that breaks Sanctuary. Then a Stun symbol (another -4 to save) stunned them all. I had IH on, so I just beat them down. Kelly got free at the end, so I stopped him again with Chromatic Orb, and carried on.
Ilmadia died to summons, nothing much to see here. The Priest-mages are usually much tougher for me, since they cast Stoneskin etc, so I sent in my summons then dispelled the mages so they were easy meat.
Perdiem is of course the easiest for a high level good or neutral cleric. Sanctuary, turn, buff, crush Idol. The Idol isn’t smart, it will cast Flamestrike on a fire-immune character, and Sol’s Searing Orb (a projectile!) on a character who has Entropy Shield going.
I cleared the entry, watchtower, Temple, Palace, and entrance to gnometown on one day’s worth of spells. Rested then did Malavon, salamanders, and Ilmadia. It’s crazy how a solo can spend days in the Vale of Shadows, but crush Lower Dorn’s Deep in a fraction of the time.
The last time in LDD, Umber Hulks somehow annoyed me more than mini-bosses 😜:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/82679/hof-trio-berserker-cleric-kensai-thief-and-wizard-slayer-mage
Ah, yeah, right. Usually, I see Umber Hulks in Tier I-4 of Black Pits 2 (I replay it often for testing purposes). In BP2 I just drink potions of clarity. IIRC, in Lower Dorn's Deep I didn't cast Chaotic Commands systematically and it was a mistake vs Umber Hulks. 😼
I had rough problems with them in Malavon Palace, in the entrance; their confuse effect works even when you are invisible 👀
I had to control the situation casting Otiluke Spheres on every confused party member who would start running around or attacking the Umber Hulk, becoming visible, being attacked then by other confused party members and stuff. I have no idea how I was able to survive that with no one dead 🙃
Yeah, I also use Otiluke's Spheres, especially from that Dagger of Safe Harbor on sale in Lonelywood. 🗡️
1) It's useful for protection of weak characters during battles, if something goes wrong.
2) U can also create an Otiluke's Sphere around a strong enemy and eliminate first weaker minions.
3) Bounty Hunter's (level 16-20) special snares cast Otiluke's Spheres. 🪩
Well this group was 5 Dragon Disciples+ 1 mage/thief 😆, I know, OP party even for HoF; this was the only time in this run that I said 'ok I'm dead' because I thought It would be safe to enter there being invisible, but no.
That's why I didn't drink potions to avoid the effect of Umber Hulks. It was stressful but somehow I was able to survive the situation.
Another uses... You can use it on some minion and it becomes a nice inmune decoy. Not sure if this works right now in last versions but I guess it does.
Hmm.... it doesn't work for me. Enemies stop attacking any creature inside Otiluke's Sphere and change their targets.
Regardless, losing that potential usage of ORS makes it a top notch emergency defensive spell and perhaps a second rate offensive spell.
I have thought about playing around with it in conjunction with Mislead. Not that it happens often, but I do wonder if it might block the operation of True Sight or Oracle.
IMO, fighting at the top of the stairs is tactically reckless. You don’t have choke points and the rakshasa can see you, which means they will dispel you, and they will summon shadow monsters right on top of you so you can’t move, and they will cast a boatload of spells and disablers directly on you. The Cl/Ill can’t cast spell immunity: abjuration even if it pulls it from the shelf, so inviting a dispel is death. Nb. I tried this fight at the top for giggles, despite knowing this strategy has been an abject failure for me always, to no avail. 6 boosted aerial servants and a lot of symbols and glyphs were insufficient to the task.
Second attempt involved fire elemental summons at the bottom of the stairs, and running back past the line for distance. It went well until my last replacement summons went down and the rakshasas moved forward far enough to target me. The enemies in this fight bring so much magic and might to the table, it’s always a difficult and chaotic battle.
My third attempt involved some pre-thinking. If one can’t cast faster or better, and can’t pre-cast enough to win, how does one win? By being sneaky and abusing spell mechanics to avoid being targeted. I set up at the bottom of the stairs first as I like to, then went forward to dialogue and run back as before. This time when running back, I ran to a far corner and cast Mislead, then cast invisibility on the Misled image. I moved forward to cast Incendiary Cloud and Meteor Swarm on the stairway, staying out of the range of dispels. This time, when my summons went down, the remaining Rakshasas and invisible stalkers rushed forward to stand around my Misled caster, but did not attack. I took the opportunity to cast Entropy Shield (giving me 127% fire resistance with the earlier PfF), then Incendiary Cloud centred on myself, then Holy Power and Righteous Magic, to help clean it all up.
Is it, actually, possible to skip that battle or Rakshasas possess some key item? 🤔
I’ve never tried to skip the fight, so I don’t know if they come after you for the key or not. Try it and let me know! That would make things substantially less risky, if one could just skip this nasty fight.
Okay, I've killed spectral guards in the main hall by Disintegration and grabbed 4 scrolls from the shelf. So far, I'm not obliged to speak with that Rakshasa disguised in Hobart. Apparent, he want the Dungeon Key from Maluradek's private chambers. So, I will indeed try to skip that insane fight. 😎
Oh, then it's not working anymore... Sad 🙃
I actually turned then chased some spectral guards and triggered M sooner than I wanted, but this was all about summons. I used Aerial Servants to do damage and other assorted trash for distraction/meatshield. He might be protected against the disruption effects of TWD. I hit him a lot and did the double damage, but destroyed him the conventional way.
Rakshasas didn't follow me (that encounter seems to be optional) and my Cl/Ill of level 17/15 descended to Castle Dungeon 1. 👈
Damn, I thought it was only necromancy
In BG it's indeed only Necromancy, but in IWD Illusion has 2 opposite schools for some weird reason. 😼
Now that I remember, in IWD2 it's like this too.
The opposite schools system is weird in all D&D editions.
In IWD2 I had an illusionist Deep gnome, I took 1 cleric of talos level and he was able to cast Necromancy and Abjuration arcane spells again. I don't know if this is an intended behaviour, but was ok for me 🙃.
Nvm off-topic.