Co8 New Content: Arena of Heroes

There are many accounts of folks beating the arena at various levels.

I believe the difficulty, (or lack of) is determined mainly on the party make up and the player's tactics.

I've found that as soon as my wizard can cast fireball the arena is no longer that much of a challenge, although a cleric with high Charisma can nerf the encounter also.

 

Well, my wizard can cast fireball (twice!) but it still depends on tactics and luck, to a degree. I beat the two giants last night, but that's because I cast bless and prayer for my party up front, got off two fireballs, two magic missiles, landed a hit with Scorching Ray, made heavy usage of summoned monsters (small and medium spiders, a fungus from the figurine, and a hell hound from my cleric), and got lucky with a bane spell from my cleric as well as my melee troops getting in some lucky critical hits. Even then, at level 5 or 6, I still had my rogue knocked out, with him almost dying.

My tactics were...ok, but I think what really helped me was getting lucky.

 

It's funny how a level one spell like grease can stop a giant in his tracks and when he gets up you get an AoO.

 

Yeah, I did that with one of them, too, but I find grease to only basically be useful for ensuring one less round of damage and one more round of me hitting them. Once they get up, they stay up (assuming they fell in the first place).

Anyway, just to be clear, I'm not saying the Arena is bad or anything, just that I can see the point about escalating difficulty.

--EDIT--

Having tried several approaches to the Arena's final fight, I think I can safely say that my guys can't beat it at Level 5. The party managed to mostly survive to beat the red and blue wizards, but when the black one showed up with skeletal giants...yeah, I was done. My rogue was in deep slumber, my barbarian was dead, and everyone else just got steamrolled. I think it'll just have to wait until level 6 when I'll have better saving throws and (hopefully) initiative, and will have had some time to get better gear together. Plus, I really need to examine my PCs and their builds again, to see where I might've been going wrong with them (e.g., no precise shot for my ranger at level 1. Oops...).

 

little problem:
once i open the chest, the dialogue trigger as normal, but after that, in my inventory there is only the corn, i cant see the book anywhere, the script doesn't give me the item.
what can i do? i load many times and i try to change the caracter that open the chest but nothing huppen.
plz help

 

mmm, i very problably have the 8.0.0 version
not the nc, but im not sure 100% how can i verify that? maybe the name of the downloaded file?

 

Circle_of_Eight_Modpack_8.0.0_Standard_Edition_Setup

ah, i think there's another problem, if i talk to him, the phrase "i'm searching for something different" do not appear..

 

somewhere i saw the arena of heroes nc is compatible with 8.0 version, so even if not every nc is included, it should work... or?

 

Went back to the Arena fight #3 after farming random encounters and doing the three fights at Imrydis Run, and finally hitting Level 6 for my party. Holy crap! What a difference a level and some proper character builds makes!! Not to mention a few crafted items like cloaks of resistance +2...

The two mages are still a pain, and I haven't beaten the fight yet (I keep ending up with one character dead each time, and I'm trying to avoid any deaths), but it's a LOT easier to manage at Level 6 than at Level 5. I think if I'd been supremely lucky at Level 5 I MIGHT have been able to win the 3rd fight, but it's dramatically more manageable at level 6.

 

There are two versions of the modpack.

8.0.0 standard edition.

8.0.0 New Content edition.

If you want to experience the arena fights and the content that happens after the Temple is defeated you must download the NC version.

Also, when downloading the .1 patch make sure you get the patch that matches your version.

 

For me the chest becomes available after clearing moathouse, by that time Furnok, whom I always take with me, is 2 points short of being able to unlock it, which can be fixed by lockslip grease and guidance. But I usually postpone the third wave until after clearing the Meadows and before moving to Nulb cause by that time I have enough money for holy mace for my cleric which makes the third wave almost too easy. I sort of panicked earlier when I said the third wave is too hard for level 5 party. Now I actually think it could be a little harder. The only danger is the occasional finger of death or w/e it is that the black wizard casts on weaker characters, which can be prevented by silence, web or turning, and deep slumber on PC from the blue wizard if there is just 1 PC – same solution. The skeletal golems can be easily put out of equation by wand of enfeeblement and putting a character with highest AC in their way. If it seems too hard, you can stick around lower part of the map to avoid provoking the second wave and lure enemies one by one with ranged attacked but I usually just pop web on it right away to aggro all of them at the same time cause it feels less cheesy. Whatever clears the web dies easily to hasted party.

 

Yeah, I found that it was too hard for my lvl 5 party. The thing that would end up nailing me each time was the blue wizard's stinking cloud and/or deep slumber spells. At that level, my guys just didn't have the saving throws to not end up sickened.

That said, I think a few other things could help a level 5 party.

First, if the characters can craft wands, give a wand of magic missiles (lvl 3) to a magic user, and use that character almost exclusively with "ready vs. spell." To the extent your casters can interrupt enemy spells it'll REALLY help.

The skeletons and such aren't as big a deal if you have a fighter-type with cleave and/or greater cleave. It's really the wizards you gotta worry about the first round.

In the second round, grease, web, etc. is helpful. Consecrate can come in handy, and I got really lucky with a glitterdust that blinded the two giant skeletons. Otherwise, I just hit 'em with well-placed fireballs and that took out the black wizard.

I think it COULD be done by a level 5 party, but it'd be a tough fight. It's a LOT more manageable at level 6, though, in case the enemies get off debuff spells that require a saving throw.

 

Just a note to point out that neither of the first two rounds of opponents (owlbears and hill giants) attempt to break free of entanglement (I haven't tired web, but I suspect it's the same) once caught. Would it be possible to add 'break free' to their scripting at this point -- it would make the encounters more challenging (more on par with or even more challenging than the Emriddy Meadows giant)?
I believe the third round opponents (skeleton giants) don't have any problems 'breaking free'.

Otherwise, the Arena is a great challenge, especially if attempting to do all three back-to-back with no recovering in between. Even then, the last round uses the great tactic of sending in the re-inforcements just when the cavalry thought the battle almost over. If only the rest of the game (i.e. the temple denziens) could provide such random surprises ...

 

I found the harpie encounter in the temple to be rather surprising. especially if your party is still new to adventuring.