Discussion of gazra_1971's Game Guide

IMO it's a cool idea but is still a bit easy. Sure, the square is well-protected from melee attacks, but it looks like it was made to throw spells at. Sure, their resistance eats up some of it, but not all. And if you have chain lightning... oh boy. Personally, I'd prefer to see more archers so that mages didn't have such an easy time blasting the square to bits.

And well, if you bother to actually cast elemental resistance or use resistance rings, it's possible to finish the fight taking hardly any damage. If not, it's a bit more bothersome since you need to spread out and heal occasionally, but still IMO not challenging enough.

 

Where can this guide be found? Just curious.

 

I just noticed a lot of people saying the Lareth fight is one of the more difficult ones since you have such a weak party. Played through it 3 times now, and I must say, if you want an easy fight, take an enchantment specialized wizard, taking spell focus enchantment and greater spell focus enchantment.

I used to use wizards for damage, but I've noticed where they really shine is crowd control. Deep Slumber, Charm, hold person, TASHA'S all those make that fight relatively simple. Just make sure you also take Fox's Cunning so you can buff up your DC even higher.

I dont remember the name, but in the Temple on the 4th floor someplace, there is a wizard with 4 elementals, 2 quasit, and 2 bugbear with him. I had sooo much trouble the first time through because I used a conjuration focused sorcerer, 2nd time i got to him I had him disabled in the first round with a heightened hold person. He stayed that way the whole battle. I was actually SHOCKED to see one of the bugbears there that I dominated killed him in 1 hit once I got the elementals under control. I didnt realize coup de grace worked against DR??

If you want pure, sustained damage I've noticed druids are a better pick. They dont burst as much as wizards but you only need 1 level 5 slot for call lightning storm which over time can do massive damage. Pair that with spike stones or spike growth, put your fighters up front, and let the enemies suffer a drawn out, painful death.

Ice Dragon, it wasnt that bad for me. I had no cold resistance rings or anything fancy like that. Had my melee rush the dragon, wizard and sorc pelted it with magic missiles, and my druid chain summoned up flame brothers and fire elementals. Worked quite nice, no one died. I love how you can actually control more than 1 summon spell at a time in ToEE. NWN 1 / 2 dissapointed me with that. And it's nice to be able to choose what I summon again.

I think the fight that gave me the MOST trouble is on the earth temple floor, in the NE corner of the map there is a room FILLED with bugbears. I must have reloaded 10 times trying to do that fight. It was a pain because they use the same tactics I did, Put my tanks up front, reach weapon characters behind that, and the rest behind them. The bugbears with the greatswords and axes really hurt. And there are just SO many of them I was never able to get charms and holds off fast enough. And at that point you're still not that high of a level unless you put the fight off, think I am usually about level 5 for that battle.

Also, I dont know if it always comes from the banshees chest in the temple, but the spiked chain +1 "love" or something like that, that does extra dmg to evil is a GREAT weapon. gave it to my dwarf fighter. He looked so menacing swinging it around with his helm of the night, black plate +3, and red cloak.

And if you have more than 1 healer, having a necromancy focused cleric is actually quite powerful, I used to overlook the cleric necromancy spells but I got to say, bestow curse has made several fights a lot more bearable. And arcane ray of enfeeblement/clumsiness are just awesome. I'd rather disable my enemies than do massive damage, if they dont die in 1 or 2 nukes they're still hitting my characters for full damage and hitting just as often.



and tasha's hideous laughter is overpowered

 

In that bugbear battle, a favorite tactic is to thrown in a few Spiritual weapons, they seem to fascinate the enemies, who flock to them and attack. Now I can't hit the SWs of enemy spellcasters, but mine will go down to hits eventually, so 2-3 are needed. Also chain devils or charmed trolls work well as they will still attack them after they go down.

 

Problem w/ that is that the spell is bugged as to having no effect on enemies with ANY spell resistance. I've also always felt like more enemies make saves against lightning storm taking half or no damage.

Not really, its DC is fairly low. Plus it doesn't work on all enemies and lots get +4 bonus to DC. If you want an overpowered spell, go for Ghoul's Touch.

Sleep spells are useless in that fight because they wake each other up now. Also, you'd have to go out of your way to level extra to get to that fight having 3rd level spells (Deep Slumber etc.). Anyhow, it's always been a fairly challenging battle, and is more so now that Lareth joins in.

 

This fight would be even better if a sergeant close to the far door grabbed a couple of nearby grunts and took the long way around to attack from behind. What's going on at the far door is often not visible, and the fight will usually takes long enough for the ambush to arrive to good effect. Would this actually be doable AI-wise?

 

I know thats how the rules are supposed to be with the +4, but does it actually apply in ToEE? Tashas is one of the few enchantment spells that rarely get resisted, even without heightening. It worked great in the water temple, all of the clerics were on the ground laughing hysterically the whole battle.

Water temple is another tough fight I think, if you cant get a good bottleneck to keep juggurnaut away. And oddly enough, the trolls in there ignored my charms and went straight for my party every time.

 

*Shrug* Lucky rolls. Plus, you DO have greater spell focus. Also, the clerics are human, so they don't get the bonus. Then again, they should have a pretty high will sav. throw already.

But that's the spell's biggest weakness - it's only really useful against humans. Plus, you can't coup de grace them when they're down. Ghoul touch, on the other hand, paralyzes almost everyone for good.

There's no easy way to do it. You just have to concentrate on taking the juggernaut out as quickly as possible. It helps if you can pre-buff with stoneskin. It's just one of those battles that's really hard until you get to a certain level and after that it's a cakewalk.

 

Re: game guide & walkthrough for the Circle of Eight modpack NC

I dont understand how to install the extra in game movies. What do i do with the .rar file from the download, where do i put it in my directory?

 

Hi
If you want the ultimate 1-2-3 punch for taking out large groups of monsters (like that huge , troublesome group of Bugbears at the Northeast Corner of Level 2) , my recommendation is Stinking Cloud - Spiritual Weapon - Spike Stones . I just played that battle with 4 PCs ( Fighter, Bard, Wizard and Cleric: all "Pure" ), Meleny and Elmo. Only 4 Bugbears even managed to get within Melee range of my party, and two of those were sickened. Cast "Enlarge Person" on a front rank fighter with a Pole Arm ( my fighter uses a crafted Holy Glaive) and it becomes a slaughterfest. SC works wonders on Falrinth and Senshock (as long as you either cast it before they cast Lesser Globe of Invulnerability or cast it so that it effects them without being cast directly on them). In my opinion Stinking Cloud is the most under appreciated spell in the game.
At lower levels ( say 3rd - 6th Level ) substitute "Grease" for "Spike Stones". For outdoor settings, you can also use Entangle, and Web works fairly well also.
The Royal Canadian

 

Fireball is kinda faster.

 

Hi Stage
Not really. What you overlooked is that the monsters take damage from walking or running into the area with spike stones. I just did the big Bugbear/Ogre fight on Level 4 last night, and it didn't take me any longer to wipe them out using Stinking Cloud and Spike Stones then it did using Fireballs. I actually had 4 or 5 Ogres and a couple of Bugbears die from running into the Spike Stones area. Needless to say, my party didn't suffer a scratch.
The Royal Canadian

 

I agree with TRC. In the fight with the bugbears where there are several females, plus about 20 males in one room is a killer, especially when the fight starts before you can get everyone in the room. A wiz/soc with improved initiative, throws out the SC, with some backup from bards and clerics, with a spiritual weapon and a grease or web, and you can stand back and pick them off with missile weapons, If any get through, the are so weak and sickens, that your tank can finish them off easily.

I like the combo of a web, then fireball, for extra fire damage.

 

At lower levels, I like to throw Web with the wizard, move the druid up or down the sequence until just in front of the wizard, and then use the druid to burn the web using Produce Flame, followed immediately by recasting Web with the wizard. It keeps the bad guys slowed down for 2 or 3 turns and whittles them down a bit. Low level Fireball!