IWD2 Battle Tactics

1-800-DOCTORB · Post by **1-800-DOCTORB** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 10:28 pm

One of the coolest aspects of all IE games are the tactical battles that take place. One of my favorite tactics is the old "equip your group with ranged weapons and shoot a few missiles at a target, move away, and repeat". I also like the one where you equip everyone with ranged weapons, fire at a target, equip all tanks with their melee weapons, move away the archers and spellcasters, engage with the tanks, and support with the archers and spellcasters. Then there's the one where you scout out the enemy, then summon some monsters, send them in as fodder, then attack with your party. As you can see, these aren't the most innovative tactics, and I'm a pretty poor tactician myself, but I'm really curious to see what other unique tactics are out there. By all means, post your unique battle tactics here, I'd love to hear some ideas.

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 3:04 am

My favourite against numerous enemies is the defesive cordon - a ring around the party or between obstacles that lets spellcasters and archers fire with impunity.

A variation is the "V", where your tanks funnel enemies into an enclosed area and short range blast spells rip them to shreds.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 8:17 am

I'm fond of Grunt's second suggestion, myself. I prefer to force the enemy to approach me in a narrow defile, with my tanks up front, and my spellcasters at the back in unobstructed view. This allows me to bring the force of all my party against an enemy who can only throw their forces at me piecemeal. An old strategy, but one of the best.

shepherd78 · Post by **shepherd78** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 8:44 am

improved invisabillity

You cant go wrong want to save time and worrys have your scoreror cast the spell on every one and mass hayste, hit the mages first and do the happy dance'

Chris Boney · Post by **Chris Boney** » Sun Oct 13, 2002 6:27 pm

My favorite battle-tactic, though it is not very fair for the monsters, is to throw all five shielddarven barbarian tanks right onto the enemy and during battle, I let the wounded tanks run in circles around the mayhem and everytime he runs past the cleric, he gets a heal.
The tank runs by the cleric but he doesn't stop, instead the cleric starts his casting and the heal will cure him when he's already far away

That looks really funny.

wicky

glaucusrex · Post by **glaucusrex** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 3:00 pm

I like to have theme parties.

Surprise Party: Using hide and move silently get rogues and rangers into position. Using invisibility get all others into position. Go to biggest, two-handed weapons to maximize first round damage when surprise is complete. Use quick spells like command;die or hold person. Excellent for enemy groupings of 1-3 individuals.

Fourth of July: Protect one or two of your tanks completely from fire. Send them into the breach. Wait until all the enemies have clustered around them. On my command, unleash hell. Fireballs, Flamestrikes, Sunscorch, Potion of Explosions/Fiery Burning, etc. Excellent against cold critters.

Happy New Year: Protect one or two of your tanks completely from cold. Send them into the breach. Wait until all the enemies have clustered around them. Use Cone of Cold, Ice Storm, Frost Fingers, etc. to eliminate your more hotblooded enemies.

It's All in the Mind: Malison, Domination, Sleep, Hold Person, Command

ie, Dire Charm, Charm Person ONLY. Just for the challenge see how badly you can tear up an enemy party without firing a shot. Usually still need some attacks at the end to finish off survivors.

Freeze frame: Lock them in place with multiple entangle, web, emotion: despair, hold person. Then rain down destruction OR let some big guy with freedom of action stride in to finish them off. It's the old military approach of find 'em, fix 'em, fight 'em, finish 'em.

Just a few of my approaches. The key to all of them is scouting. See the enemy before he sees you and you can set up a nice approach for any terrain/enemy combination.

1-800-DOCTORB · Post by **1-800-DOCTORB** » Mon Oct 14, 2002 4:52 pm

Re: improved invisabillity

Originally posted by shepherd78
You cant go wrong want to save time and worrys have your scoreror cast the spell on every one and mass hayste, hit the mages first and do the happy dance'

Personally I don't consider that a tactic, I consider that as taking advantage of an obvious bug that I hope the next patch deals with. But for the record, I'm the worst person for taking advantage of bugs or certain faults in the application of the Infinity Engine. For instance, leaving a map when your losing a battle just to rest and replenish spells and return at full strength is something I've done before. As I've become more experianced with IE games though, I try and avoid being cheap and I think it's a funner game that way.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 10:07 am

Early in the game, I'm a big fan of the web/tanks with freedom tactic. Until your characters hit level 5-6, it's one of the best tactics in the game.

Often in my parties, I like to have a rogue/fighter and a rogue/sorcerer or wizard. Once the pair hits level 10, I like to use these two as a wrecking ball in tight spaces because managing the party of six can be a hassle in tight dungeons.

Skull traps and a character boots of speed. Cast a bunch of these and have a character with boots of speed run circles around them while leading packs of enemies into their path.

Split the party. In order to find the best strengths and weaknesses of my party, I often like to split them up into two groups. It allows me to explore the full powers of all characters instead of gaining an advantage with the group and letting my tanks finish off the fight. Example: while using the two rogues mentioned above to scout and exterminate, I'll send the other group in a different direction.

glaucusrex · Post by **glaucusrex** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 11:15 am

I agree. Preparing the battlefield and luring enemies into the kill zone is a time honored approach to combat. Not cheesy at all when lives are on the line. I used a similar approach in Throne of Bhaal outside the Tavern in Amkethran. At that point in the game loads of monks and mercenaries are coming after you. I will rest in the tavern, memorize lots of "minefield" spells. Then I come outside and establish a protective perimeter to hold off the hordes that seem to regenerate for a while.

I use delayed blast fireball, glyph of warding, skull traps, symbol stun, symbol fear, etc. I can deploy a couple dozen of these. It's quite fun to wait and watch for the enemies I know are coming to get me. Often they are completely destroyed in my minefield. Other times, a well angled chase can lead them into it. If not completely destroyed, they are very damaged when they get to me. A couple of hits and they are dead. A perfect setup for that terrain. The alternative of fighting outnumbered and taking big damage, maybe eventually winning, is not as appealing. It's important to know when you are in a defensive situation to use a defensive tactic.

Tharan · Post by **Tharan** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 9:39 am

I think my fav. tactic so far is to put Hope and Haste on my guys. The plop maybe 1 or 2 skull traps. Then lead the enemies into them, and while they are trying to get to the fighters I shoot a fireball/chain lit at them. And then of course its all hand to hand and some magic missle/flame arrows fight. Oh yea another cool tactic is (not sure if you can all this cheese a tactic) but to put mirror image on your spellcaster, run in the middle of baddies and throw 1 or 2 sunfires. That tends to tear 'em up.

1-800-DOCTORB · Post by **1-800-DOCTORB** » Wed Oct 16, 2002 1:55 pm

Howz that cheese? Thats a cool tactic, never though of it.

Tharan · Post by **Tharan** » Thu Oct 17, 2002 10:59 am

Lol I'm not sure hows that cheeze but I'm pretty sure someone will label it >=). Oh yea just found out another tactic, this one is actually pretty good I think. Make sure you have holy word and symbol of hopelesness on 2 different chars. So when you enter a battle, just run in with your cleric ( yes he'll be hit maybe once or twice) bust out the holy word, that should hold the baddies for 1 round, just enough time for a wizard or any other spell caster to bust out the symbol of hopelesness, wack wack wack everyone is really stuck =). Hmmmmm I think I'll call it..... Holly Hopelesness Word of Rush In Later With Tanks and Slaughter and Take the Glory of Fight strategy. .... Yes a good name.

TheSeventhStoog · Post by **TheSeventhStoog** » Thu Oct 17, 2002 9:45 pm

My favorite tactic involves the use of one of the most underrated spells (in my opinion) available: Olituke's Resilient Sphere.

Monsters will tend to pick out a character and just start pounding on him/her, so I try to pick out who it is, throw a Sphere on that character, and while the monsters are trying to kill him I take the rest of my guys/gals and pound the enemy (and very often they don't bother turning around to attack anyone who is hitting them).

Now, granted, that means that I only have five attacking characters, instead of six, but if half the enemy is preoccupied with trying to hit the character in the Sphere, it is FAR, FAR MORE than worth it. That's how I finally brought down the guardian in the Yuan-Ti jungle...

glaucusrex · Post by **glaucusrex** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 7:47 am

Cool idea. Yes, I believe Otiluke's Resilient Sphere can be a powerful spell and is underrated. But I have never used it quite as creatively as you have. Occasionally I'd save one of my own, or tie up a powerful enemy to focus on another. But your approach seems to be very innovative.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 8:55 am

I, too, use Otiluke resilient sphere to take the most powerful enemy out of a battle in order to deal with the lesser minions first.

TheSeventhStoog · Post by **TheSeventhStoog** » Sat Oct 19, 2002 8:36 am

Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment!

And Ned, I suppose that was the original purpose of the spell in the first place, eh? I wonder why I didn't think of that...

I am not the most innovative guy in the world, either. And there are some spots in the game that have me totally puzzled (even though they probably shouldn't

). But I am getting better. And believe me, these boards have been a big help...