CO8 8.0.0 NC So I killed Hedrack in the Greater Temple, and during the fight Iuz took the golden orb (did that always happen?). Makes it a bit unclear what to do next, I checked with the smith but he had no NC content for me yet, so I decided to clear the nodes. I have a part of 5 PCs and 2 NPCs all around lvl 10. Earth/Air were easy enough, but Fire is impossible. There are groups of Noble Salamanders who chain throw 10D6 fireballs - around 6 of these per round means 60D6 of AOE fireballs coming in per round. I tried all kinds of fire protection but I can't seem to get it high enough to survive that many. Should I not be in the fire node yet, and if not, where am I meant to go after killing Hedrack?
There's a good tactic in repelling the fireballs, use Darleys' stone body eh? I don't know the exact term, you'll find it in her radial menu (cast). Just hire her then leave one of your NPCs in her position then cast it all in one of your members (tanker type). Then if her spell stone body is depleted then its time to remove her from your party. Recruit your NPC again, then go forth to the salamanders, but beware, you will only put your tanker nearest to them not your other party members since they are vulnerable (put your party members near Darleys' position), just wait and wait till the salamanders depletes their fireballs on your tanker, after that go for them in melee. Well I know this isn't your type of playing, but I bet this will be one of the effective way in killing them.
You get the new content after killing Zuggtmoy. For the Salamanders, you can cast Lesser Globe of Invulnerability - it nullifies the fireball entirely. You can also cast Stinking Cloud on them, it prevents them from casting and should eventually get all of them.
OK I got them down pretty easily with the Lesser Globe of Invulnerability - is it really meant to make everyone near the mage immune to the fireballs? Anyway it worked well and I got past them all - but now the Baalor is even tougher. The difficulty really seems to fall off a cliff here with not much similarity with just about everything before here. Is there any way to counter the sickness from the demons he summons up? I can't see any spells that would counter sickness...
At some point (previous release) All the demons and possibly other things were upgraded to help deal with the extra exp. from n.c.. Kent used to warn you of this.
If you were lucky enough to find (and keep) the +3 Frostbrand, enlarge your best fighter (and put Cat's Grace on him as well) and put Protection from Evil on him and everyone else in your party. A potion of Heroism or better yet, Greater Heroism will keep him up and fighting for a while. Stinking Cloud works well on the balor and don't forget to use the other gems you found to summon some help of your own. Depending on how you've set up your wizards and/or sorcerers, Magic Missile him at every opportunity and if you're really lucky Dismissal might work on him too. Also, see if you can maneuver someone to a spot where you can launch a few Cones of Cold on him- he has damage reduction vs. cold but if you've the right feats you can still blast him for damage. Good luck- this is one of the toughest fights in the whole game (even Zuggtmoy doesn't have the spell resistance of the balor guardian...)
One of the keys to the balor (and most of the rest of the game, actually) is holy axiomatic weapons. There's one built in to the game as treasure, and you can craft as many as you want with the right feats and cleric domains (Craft Arms and Armor, Good and Law domains, at least 8th level cleric).
