Hi, I've just about cleared the 1st lvl of ToEE in version 8NC and noticed a few differences already. The battle following ingress to the Earth Temple is very, very difficult. My characters are lvl 6 so my fighter and barbarian get 2 attacks each turn but they are getting slaughtered by the temple commander and that mega ogre and the large earth elementals. I don't want to have to craft anything so I chose other stuff on levelling up. Can anyone give me a few hints about how to go about the battle? I've spent all afternoon getting slaughtered time after time:sadblinky Thanks
I never let the ogre chief or the guard commander near my fighter types These critters are best left to a bard with Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter, spell focus enchantment, greater spell focus enchantment and the best cloak of charisma you can afford to craft. For the elementals I'd say heroism and inspire courage followed by rage (the spell) from bard on barbarian [stacks with normal rage] - both fighter and barbarian should use two-handed weapons with MAXIMUM possible Power Attack to overcome damage resistance as much as possible.
Hm, I don't remember this being so difficult. It was a bit tricky last time when the ogre managed to break through the frontline and went after my spellcasters. With the ogre chief, dishing out damage and getting him down as quickly as possible is key. Use Haste, Enlarge Person, Bull Strength (also via potion, you should have some of those by now), try Grease. Also use Full Attack and 5-foot-step out of reach at the end of the turn (the enlarged guy or a glaive/ranseur/longspear wielder can do that). For the main fight, I came from the north directly into the priest's room and found all fighters from the adjacent room crammed into it. Target-rich environment for Glitterdust and Holy Smite, I think I hit ~30 hostiles in one go. Also, get the armor class of your frontliners up. Barkskin, Shield of Faith, Protection from Evil (does not stack with SoF), Cat's Grace ... are good for 5 or more points of AC, which should make quite a difference.
I think he's talking about the reactive fight, when you fight them all together, and flanked or surrounded to boot (this is new in 8.0.1) I'm curious how hard others find it as well. As a last resort, I think it's no shame to just defer it for later - after all, Earth is supposed to be the strongest Temple.
How do you trigger that, I thought it was a death of a high priest that did that? (I also thought that these guards moving into the priest's room was a sort of reactive move already.)
In any case, I find that Full Attack, 5-foot-step and readied vs. approach alone can turn the tide in battles.
I usually gut most of the Earth Temple troops while they're separated before heading deeper, but leave enough alive so as not to trigger the other reactive temples. I'm almost through my 7.9 play through, and look forward to seeing how the new Earth Temple fight will go.
I did the reactive fight with a two man party and I must say I got clobbered first time around (several criticals). With a whirlwind fighter and a battle mage (fighter/wiz) using scrolls, I got through it the second time around, and it was a lot of fun. Thumbs up!
I second Pygmy's suggestion regarding Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter. That spell saved my group both in the earth temple as well as against the (13 HD!!??) greater temple bugbears on level 2. It seemed like kind of a cheap tactic at first, but I got over it...
Ooh, more new stuff! I think I installed the 8.0.1 patch after doing level 1 so I missed the reactive Earth Temple. At what point does it trigger? I've tended to fight the various guards and the ogres fairly early on, so usually have a bunch of webs/ glitterdust/ stinking cloud available for the ogre chief and the room with the temple commander, but doing them all at once would be interesting...
Nightcanon, the following is taken from the game guide & walkthrough sticky thread: Spoiler below! Originally posted by Sitra Achara:
I managed to win the fight (triggered because I cleared the rest of the level) by sacrificing my rogue and leaving the rest far enough away to be out of harm's way initially. The temple affiliates then move inside the temple and it became a far easier fight. I then moved my party up to the entrance, where the barricade was, and waited till they came in small numbers, before entering and finishing off the stragglers. I brought the Rogue back to life as soon as I reached him to reduce xp loss. It was a new and exiting twist...thanks for that! P.S. the rest of the temple fights are as was. I'd like to thank the mod team for the fully finished Verbobonc, I've just arrived there and it is really looking good.
The Earth Temple fight is one of the best ones, in my opinion. If I recall correctly, my character's weapons were unequiped at the start of the combat, due to the diplomatic conditions of speaking with Romag. I charmed the temple commander, which obviously helped out a lot.
