How the heck do you defeat Yxunomei?
I've tried:
- rushing in
- hiding around the corner to defeat the bad guys as they come
- focussing on the few in front
... the only thing I haven't tried yet is to go all the way back to Kuldahar to see about purchasing some scrolls.
I speed my party, use my mage and her spells (until she gets confused and killed), try to use my cleric... I have lost count how many times I've tried, and I'm about to give up! My characters have +2 hand-held weapons, but no magicked arrows or crossbow bolts.
I'd be grateful for any suggestions and tips!
- rushing in
- hiding around the corner to defeat the bad guys as they come
- focussing on the few in front
... the only thing I haven't tried yet is to go all the way back to Kuldahar to see about purchasing some scrolls.
I speed my party, use my mage and her spells (until she gets confused and killed), try to use my cleric... I have lost count how many times I've tried, and I'm about to give up! My characters have +2 hand-held weapons, but no magicked arrows or crossbow bolts.
I'd be grateful for any suggestions and tips!
2
Comments
Keeping spells interrupted is key, there is a LOT of spell damage flying around if you're not careful.
You have two objectives; suppress casters, pulverize the boss.
Save a fireball or two (or a potion tha explodes) - you can't throw it at Yx without killing your summoned creatures, and it helps you survive part 2 of the battle even if you are fatigued. Target the spellcasters first then the rest. If it goes well, they shopuld still be trapped in webs etc when you kill YX and you can pick them off using your less valuable ranged missiles.
when your characters can't be directly targeted by spells, this fight gets MUCH easier.
frankly, the first time I fought it, I found the spellcasters creeping up behind my group (playing on insane) to be a much stickier problem, since I had used up a lot of my abilities on the group in the room.
as mentioned upthread, summons are very useful here. who cares if your summoned wolf gets feebleminded?
You will miss the dialogue that way though.
I summoned a bunch of monsters, and moved them into the room to get targeted. As the mages spawned, I hit one or two with acid arrow, as Albino went and over and chunked the others to bits. As I was done with the acid, I cast cloudkill in the door as Albino tried keeping them at bay. When Yxunomei came through, I somehow knocked her unconscious [with colour spray, I think?], and that bought us some time for Albino to destroy all the minions [while I assisted with fireballs!]. Thus came the difficult part: ending Yxunomei when the only magical weapon we have was an axe Albino isn't even proficient in. We managed to get through [I forgot how, I think she was stunned somehow, or we reduced her saving throws enough, or something?], and yeah... I don't really remember.
barbarian, berzerker, kensai, bounty hunter, cleric of tempus, fighter (with longbow)
The bounty set traps before talking to yxunomei.
The party rest into the small room.
Barbarian goes talking with yxu, the rush the small room.
Traps done all the job unto the yuan ti mages.
The fighter (with the longbow) focus on her with the +1 arrows, the cleric buff the party, the 3 fighters (barbarian, berzerker, kensai) rush the yuan ti, then help killing yxu.
dude... you're not getting it. the monsters aren't there to do damage. they are there to soak up enemy spells for you.
blindness is an excellent call though. if you can get it to stick, it's exactly the same as if you had cast improved invisibility on everyone in your party. and you're now immune to being directly targeted by any spells, though you're still vulnerable to area effect casts and fireballs and whatnot.
...which is why sending in even 4 goblins helps tremendously. the casters will use their AOE effects on THEM.
seriously, I would mod it so high level mages go tensers when confronted with something like a hakeashar, but it's just too much scripting to be worth it to me.
And since its a +4 weapon, the backstab is a killer.
But the hard part is getting it early on, you don't want to fight that many drowned dead and such so early on so stealth through it
For me at least, a direct attack against the enemies in the room is almost certain suicide - it spreads your party too thin, and there are traps in the room that will ruin your party members if you don't disarm them first. In my experience, the best approach is a "Divide & Conquer" strategy - use a variety of monster summons and/or AoE spells to stall the enemies in the room for as long as you can, while the bulk of your party focuses on destroying the two mages that appear behind you as quickly as possible.
Here's a screenshot of my recent encounter with Yzuno, showing how I positioned my party (notice that I had used Web and Stinking Cloud to slow the enemy's advance).
I was still a tough battle though, and one of my party members ended up getting perma-killed, as you can see below. If I had been more willing to metagame (which I hate to do), I probably could've created a lot more monster summons and/or buffed my party a lot more in advance. Also, my kensai ended up being "held" at some point in the chaotic melee action (I didn't see how it happened), but she "un-froze" just in time to deal a whopping 48-point crit hit to Yzuno (not enough to save my cleric from being chunked, sadly), and then finish her off shortly after that.
I defeated her relatively easy on vanilla Icewind Dale.
I don't remember how exactly but I think I buffed my party, killed off the others, debuffed her and used trapping spells to slow her down (Web, Grease, maybe some others).
Then hit her full of magic and arrows as someone tanked her.
No special party (it was Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Mage, Bard, Druid all single classed). On Hardcore rules.
I might also have summoned some stuff but no armies.
I've never found this a difficult fight. The warriors take her out, while others take out her support.
I think this is a very fun fight. But then I was one of the few who always picks Dragon's Eye as my favorite part of the whole game. This climactic battle gives your whole party something to do. But I usually find just two warriors (hasted, strength spells or potions) destroy Yxi in two rounds, or less, and they can join in the carnage against the support troops.
But the fight against Yxunomei is one of my favorites, a team of beginners against her and her friends, really fun .
It all depends on the team, but in general it takes a little preparation , some thief traps, the best spells ( spike growth , web , fireball , grease , entangle etc ... ) some invocation ( mostly animate dead ) , potions ( haste) for the fighters.
First I dropped a bit of crowd control (Grease) in the entrance to the room. Then I focused on the 3 enemies spawning in the corridore. By the time they where dead, the rest came through the door. I then retreated into to the northern chambers, all the way in, dropping some more Grease and the Thief put up some traps. Then I focoused fired on Yxunomei, and then took care of the rest. My Cleric ran around stopping bleeding wounds all the time, and my Bard played nervously trying the encourage the fighters as best he could. Just make sure whoever pulls the shortest straw and has to stand and block the entrance to the innermost chambers has all the good equipment.
I've prepared some traps to give a warm welcome to the mages while they went out of theirs Dimensional Doors.
Skull Trap to wish a nice day to her foot soldiers. Holy Smite close to the door to spice things up.
I've made the priest cast Holy Power so he could heat things up too.
And enraged my Berserker. You know: just in case.
Sended my two tanks (Inquisidor and Berserker) to kick her arse. Archer was busy disrupting casters at first, but soon enough he joined the battle against Madame Xy and made her look like a porcupine when he was done with her.
She barely damaged my party.
I'm currently doing a "no rest without RP" run. It means I'm not resting in dungeons (except when there is someone I can trust to guard my party). I was very damaged and low in resourcers when I've reached Yx's chamber, but the job was done.
My party:
Bounty Hunter, Inquisidor, Skald, Archer, Berserker, Priest of Tempus.
She has good saves and high MR, but if it works, she's stunned for 13 rounds. That's a lot of time for dealing damage, and it does a lot to reduce the pressure on the party. Cast enough Chromatic Orbs, and the chance of success is very high.
I could have backtracked to the town to get some items and spells to make the fight easier, though.