The battle that made me nearly ragequit [HOF]
Harpagornis
Member Posts: 1,658
Here`s the little story of pain: I played all the way through the Original Campaign, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster. Solo – with a Shapeshifter Druid. At first i throught that HOF would be a nearly impossible challenge. But to my surprise: Everything worked great. The druid and his summons rushed through the game. Ok, i played Icewind Dale many years ago so i had some clue what they are going to throw at me. The only tough battles were Belhifet (forgot about the traps) and Icasaracht (seems smarter in EE). But after some rethinking both final battles were quite manageable.
Then i switched to Trials of the Luremaster: What a great expansion! Because finally the enemies really got challenging: Be it the Harpy Queen, the 10+ spectral guards, Crieck of Tyrannos and his party. Even the final fight vs the Luremaster - i just loved it. Only one battle remained that i could not win even after a dozen of tries and i am very surprised that its mentioned nearly nowhere:
>>> Hobart Stubbletoes <<<
Watching this little halfling transforming into a Rakshasa, calling in two more Rakshasa friends plus 10 Invisible Stalkers was already frightening. What followed was a real pain train. Each of the Rakshasas constantly summoned more shadow monsters. They dispelled all my protective magic again and again. They not only had an insane ammount of disables but also tons of fire, lightning and cold based damage spells. Outlasting was not possible because they seemed to have a infinite number of spells memorized. And: They were not only immune to all magic i threw at them but also hitting them with weapons was damn hard (not to forget the 50% damage reduction).
I tried nearly anything. Lurking them into small corridors where i only have to fight a small number of monsters. Trying to burst them down quickly enough before they melt me down. Experimenting will all possible spell combos to find a way through their magic protection. Nothing seemed to work. Sometimes i held the line for 10-15 minutes but was still not able to damage the Rakshasas hard enough as they were always hiding behind enemy lines. Sooner or later i ran out of spells and the enemy hordes flooded upon me. It was really terrifying. It was frustrating.....
After some heavy rethinking and many more deaths i finally managed to beat them – but only with the help of a retreat-rest-abuse. And even then the two remaining Rakshasas again gave me a hell of a fight that lastet for more than 20 minutes. If the Luremaster would not have called in his six Spectral Heroes but six Rakshasas instead the final battle would have been impossible. I think i will have some nightmarish dreams tonight: Rakshasas floating through the darkness, whispering their melody of endless torments...
What was your most frustrating battle in Icewind Dale? Have you ever quit the game because you could not win a specific fight? At the end my ambition of beating the Rakshasas was higher – but it was a close one!!!
Then i switched to Trials of the Luremaster: What a great expansion! Because finally the enemies really got challenging: Be it the Harpy Queen, the 10+ spectral guards, Crieck of Tyrannos and his party. Even the final fight vs the Luremaster - i just loved it. Only one battle remained that i could not win even after a dozen of tries and i am very surprised that its mentioned nearly nowhere:
>>> Hobart Stubbletoes <<<
Watching this little halfling transforming into a Rakshasa, calling in two more Rakshasa friends plus 10 Invisible Stalkers was already frightening. What followed was a real pain train. Each of the Rakshasas constantly summoned more shadow monsters. They dispelled all my protective magic again and again. They not only had an insane ammount of disables but also tons of fire, lightning and cold based damage spells. Outlasting was not possible because they seemed to have a infinite number of spells memorized. And: They were not only immune to all magic i threw at them but also hitting them with weapons was damn hard (not to forget the 50% damage reduction).
I tried nearly anything. Lurking them into small corridors where i only have to fight a small number of monsters. Trying to burst them down quickly enough before they melt me down. Experimenting will all possible spell combos to find a way through their magic protection. Nothing seemed to work. Sometimes i held the line for 10-15 minutes but was still not able to damage the Rakshasas hard enough as they were always hiding behind enemy lines. Sooner or later i ran out of spells and the enemy hordes flooded upon me. It was really terrifying. It was frustrating.....
After some heavy rethinking and many more deaths i finally managed to beat them – but only with the help of a retreat-rest-abuse. And even then the two remaining Rakshasas again gave me a hell of a fight that lastet for more than 20 minutes. If the Luremaster would not have called in his six Spectral Heroes but six Rakshasas instead the final battle would have been impossible. I think i will have some nightmarish dreams tonight: Rakshasas floating through the darkness, whispering their melody of endless torments...
What was your most frustrating battle in Icewind Dale? Have you ever quit the game because you could not win a specific fight? At the end my ambition of beating the Rakshasas was higher – but it was a close one!!!
7
Comments
I'm looking forward to this fight for my FMT+FMC combo, I may have to get inventive.
I am now stuck at HoF difficulty in the Marketh fight. Not sure if I am going to quit yet and deactivate HoF, however I surely rage a lot in this fight, I can tell you that for sure.
Thieves backstab my characters for 90 points of damage (60 + 30). 1-2 party members die instantly.
I do not think there is a way to beat this without using my meta game knowledge. I will probably find a place to rest and go back with invisibility purge memorised and I will use an invisible bounty hunter to place as many traps as possible.
Cheese I know, but honestly can't seem to find anything else that works.
To make it short: Prebuffs + Summons + AoE-Damage + proper positioning will get you through! ;o)
That was not the case for the magic-immune Rakshasas. Only good placement and micro of the summons helped me through finally.
The Harpy Queen is relatively easy for a druid. Get every protection you need, run to the middle of the room, cast Natures Beauty and watch the blinded harpys flying around helplessly. Retreat to a safe spot, summon your Shambling Mounds and throw in some static charges (plus spike growth) if needed.
The Luremaster can be tricked too. Retreat immediately once you got teleported into the final room so the Luremaster is not able to open the dialogue with you. This gives you time to summon your Shambling Mounds. When the battle starts and your summons are focused you can either use Natures Beauty now to blind the Spectral Heroes or just play the classic "summons + static charge + spike growth" game. Just make sure to recast your summons quickly enough.
At the moment i am soloing IWD 2 in HoF-Mode with a Druid - works great too!